What would you do if your sister asked you to donate your sperm so that she could have a child with her lesbian partner? It may not be a question many of us have pondered – only half of us, statistically speaking, have the required physiological traits to consider such a conundrum in the first place, let alone the required circumstances – but it does bring with it a plethora of possibilities both comic and dramatic.
That is a fact not lost on playwright Ben Ockrent, whose new play Breeders is based on just that scenario.
The first production in the One Stage season supporting new commercial theatre producers, it has drawn the combined performance talents of Angela Griffin, Tamzin Outhwaite, Jemima Rooper and Nicholas Burns to the show, along with director Tamara Harvey who’s swiftly built an exemplary reputation with productions including From Here To Eternity, The Kitchen Sink and Hello/Goodbye.
After its conception roughly nine months ago – I kid you not! – the play takes to the stage of the St James Theatre for the first time later this week, with Griffin and Outhwaite as the lovers, Burns as the brother and Rooper as his girlfriend.
Photographer Anton Belmonte snuck into rehearsals to capture the show’s gestational period.