Review: A LITTLE INQUEST INTO WHAT WE ARE ALL DOING HERE, Battersea Arts Centre
Photo credit: Alex Brenner
In 2022, a show was pulled from production before it ever reached the stage. The backlash it faced wasn’t based on content, because no one had seen it! Rather it was cancelled on the idea of what it might contain. That show was The Family Sex Show, an educational performance for young audiences that sought to open conversations about bodies, pleasure, consent, and queerness. It was met with intense opposition, including threats and a 38,000-signature petition demanding its cancellation. The show’s funding, booked venues and general support all pulled out, the show could not go on.
Now, in response to that moment, A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here emerges, not as a replica of the original, but as a new theatrical exploration by Josie Dale-Jones and her company ThisEgg. Blending autobiographical storytelling, verbatim text with more conceptual and expressive moments, the show examines what it means to make art in a culture so ready to shut it down. Framed around questions of censorship and freedom of expression, the piece asks: what is the role of theatre today? Who gets to decide what is safe? What are we protecting when we cancel a show that no one has seen? This is a production that dares to hold a mirror to society’s discomfort around sex education and body politics, particularly when aimed at younger audiences. Dale-Jones doesn’t rehash the original show but instead creates something altogether different: a reflective, critical, and sometimes uncomfortable meditation on the very fact that The Family Sex Show never had the chance to be staged.
From the moment Dale-Jones walks on stage and takes her seat behind a desk and microphone, the performance is intentionally stripped back. The setup is simple, the communication direct. BSL interpreter Ali Gordon brings an added dynamic to the performance, not only translating but engaging so fully that their presence feels integral to the piece.
There are moments of sharp clarity and wit, particularly in the first half, where the show’s tone is direct, didactic, and quietly confrontational. In the latter half, things get more abstract, a conversation between Dale-Jones and a darker internal voice played by Laurence Baker disrupts the otherwise clean structure. These sections veer into conceptual territory that doesn’t quite land with the same force but are entertaining if not a bit confusing to follow.
Still, the show’s power lies in its insistence on conversation. It’s a thoughtful, sometimes bewildering, but ultimately generous piece of theatre that invites its audience to think differently, not just about the events of 2022, but about how we navigate the messy terrain of public morality, safety, and fear.
ThisEgg has always been a company unafraid to question the status quo. Their work plays with theatrical form while remaining rooted in a deep desire to engage audiences in the here and now. In A Little Inquest, that mission feels relevant and Dale-Jones’ tenacity and transparency are testament to what art can do - provoke, question, and reach toward change. This isn’t a show that simply tells a story. It’s one that holds space for a wider debate.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Stephanie Osztreicher