Review of The Soon Life for The Live Review, October 2025
"LIKE ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE WITH TEN TIMES THE DRAMA AND TEN TIMES THE STAKES."
A review by Charlotte Mason-Mottram
The Soon Life, performed at Southwark Playhouse in Borough, takes one of the most ordinary and extraordinary human experiences and makes it feel like the end of the world. For ninety minutes, we’re locked in the living room of a heavily pregnant Bec (Phoebe McIntosh), who is determined to have her “perfect” home birth in the chaos of lockdown London.
As the writer of the play and the actor playing the protagonist, McIntosh has produced something that’s rich with humour and honesty — playing Bec with incredible stamina and vulnerability. The set doesn’t look like a stage, but rather a flat we’ve wandered into by mistake. The clutter, the damp patches that appear in real time on Bec’s tracksuit bottoms when her waters break, the claustrophobic hum of lockdown: every detail adds to the sense that we are intruding on something very private.
The ticking sound that runs throughout the performance tightens the tension, a constant reminder that time is running out, that change is inevitable. Even the phone calls, with real voices at the other end of the line, remove the boundary between theatre and life.
What makes the play compelling isn’t just the birth, but the collision between Bec and her ex, Alex (Joe Boylan), who barges back into her life at the worst possible time. Their exchanges teeter between funny (eliciting many laughs), relatable (making you think about your own relationships), and heartbreakingly devastating: the dialogue cuts open old wounds just as contractions cut through Bec’s body.
The second half of the play completely erupts (or splashes!) onto the stage. The contractions become visceral, animalistic — every breath, every moan ricocheting around the theatre. By the time Bec thrashes in the birthing pool, there is a sense of unbearable release. You almost forget to breathe as you watch.
There are moments when the script dips, when the dialogue doesn’t quite match the urgency of the situation. But these are quickly overshadowed by the sheer intensity of the climax. The play becomes almost unbearable to watch, not because it falters, but because it feels so real.
Like One Born Every Minute with ten times the drama and ten times the stakes, The Soon Life leaves you ‘contracting’ into your seat. It’s not just about birth, it’s about survival, endings, and beginnings colliding in a single, primal moment.
The Soon Life is running at Southwark Playhouse Borough until Saturday 18 October.