Juniper Blood and some portraits

This latest play at the Donmar is a funny family drama but it is also full of knotty debates about how to live well.  Juniper Blood by Mike Bartlett opens on a family farm that needs renovating; Ruth (Hattie Morahan) and Lip (Sam Troughton) have just inherited and are full of ideas of how to be more sustainable.  

With definite Chekovian undertones with the family farm under pressure and fraught family relationships I thought that might be where this goes, but alongside the entertaining family dramas this turns into a energetic and gripping debate  about what is a good and ethical way to live in a capitalist world gone bad.  Throw science at it or carry on regardless, make pragmatic changes around organic and sustainability, or go full survivalist and return to basics?  

The characters represent and advocate the different approaches. Ruth is full of middle class guilt and compromise, so advocates organic farming and a few pigs, whilst Millie (Nadia Parkes) who is Ruth’s ex-stepdaughter, sees the land as something for her pleasure.  Femi (Terique Jarrett), Millies’s friend, who is doing a masters in something agricultural thinks they need to do more to replenish the earth, using the latest research and that organic farming doesn't go far enough.  They are joined by Tony, a pragmatic businessman farmer who makes sure that his farm just about turns a profit.  Lip though, as a kind of taciturn and less charismatic Johnny Rooster (see Jerusalem), eventually reaches a much bleaker assessment and decides that the only way is to go full retreat from civilisation.  But how does that work if you have children's futures to think about as Ruth does?

The performances are all spot on, and I loved each of these characters who managed to move beyond the caricatures and made what could otherwise have been a fairly dry debate into something full of passion and energy, with rounded characters that were all sympathetic and human in their different ways. For example, Tony (Jonathan Slinger) the business oriented farmer is in the midst of a mid-life crisis, and he is ludicrous, satirical and heartfelt, often at the same time.

This production makes some interesting choices; the set is real soil and grass with a wooden platform, and we have real trees being planted.  The lights are kept up throughout, presumably to make sure we know we are part of this debate too, and the whole three acts take place in the same spot which gradually becomes less civilised as Lip retreats from the world.  

Despite being well rooted in the past, this is a very topical play having the urgent discussion we should be having in real life about how we should be living, given the climate crisis, overpopulation, ecological collapse. There were quite a few empty seats though, and I wonder why - I wonder if people are being put off by the potential seriousness of the subject matter?   I did get a seat upgrade as a result though so that was good, and most of us in the row had the same experience and we had a bit of excited camaraderie at the unexpected uplift. 

A very wordy play which sometimes tips over into speechifying,  but this had me on the edge of my seat, and reminded me that despair shouldn't be an option however tempting it might be.  There was lots of debate about it as we all headed down the stairs and out into the street, always a good sign. 

Herbet Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2025

Earlier I had popped into this free exhibition at the Portrait Gallery.  There were a lot of lovely pieces but none of my favourites were winners.

Probably my favourite was Japanese artist Shinji Ihara's portrait of his partner  'Light and Shadow'  Deceptively simple, but so much to look at too although you can't see the detail unless you zoom in -  I'd happily have this one on my wall at home.

But this one made me laugh a lot  'Inset day' by Yvadney Davis captures both the glee of the child out of school, and the mum's weariness.  What parent hasn't felt like this?

This one by Dide 'Portrait of a Sculptor' looks paint splattered and messy but is also intricately painted - I spent ages with my nose up against this, looking at the fine working.

Finally, I have a bit of an obsession with the way fabrics are captured in paint (I wish I was talented enough to do it myself) and both of these paintings are excellent at it.

Two Dogs (Portrait of David Hockney Inspired by Whistler's Mother) by Brenda Zlamany  - look at that velvet suit with rolled up trousers!

Ollie and Orlando (The New York Couple) by Lucille Dweck - so many different fabrics and even with my nose pressed against the painting I couldn't quite see how they were all so cleverly rendered.

The exhibition is on till 12th October and is free.  You can see all of the paintings online if you follow the link to vote for a favourite.