THEATRE

This is a virtuoso one-man performance by Andrew Harrison, who becomes not only Darwin but many others in the life, including his wife and his dying daughter. As may be expected in a piece first performed in Westminster Abbey, Darwin’s early religious upbringing and his struggles with faith and with the ideas of his father get considerable mention. Given this, I was surprised more attention was not given to his wife’s very literal ideas of the afterlife (that she and he would only enjoy paradise together if he kept his faith), which caused Darwin to pause as he did not want to give undue distress to her.

Harrison is effective in moving between many characters, and we have the Beagle story and the delays in publishing, plus the later controversies. Andrew Harrison is very much a gentleman, but I would have welcomed a little more passion, especially from Darwin himself, in the matter of his father, his wife and life after publication. The death of the beloved daughter was effectively done, but it was a pity that the same technique was used for later illness.

And of course, there have to be dogmatic atheists. (I’d welcome someone revealing to me the existence of my dogmas, and explaining their ineffable nature.)