Review: ★★★ Immaculate Correction, King’s Head Theatre

Immaculate correction at the King’s Head Theatre is part of their Playmill festival, a three week festival with new and exciting writing. This particular play though is written by their Junior Associate, Catherine Expósito, who graduated last year from King’s Head Theatre’s Trainee Resident Director’s Scheme. It tells the story of Stacey, who is trapped between the idea of sex being bad and wanting to have her first sexual experience. It is meant to comment on working class Scotland in a catholic school and the problems behind only having access to sex through porn.

It doesn’t necessarily come across the way it’s meant to. The comment on porn doesn’t really shine through, it’s more the school’s view on sex education and how it doesn’t actually teach anything about sex, except that it’s bad and you should wait till marriage. Through most of the beginning it seems that the protagonist agrees with that statement, although she is simply curious to know what it’s about. This creates some problems with the story line as Stacey’s struggles seem less realistic as we don’t know what her wants are. The pressure she feels to have sex is also unbelievable as she is only 14, she says she doesn’t wanna be like her mother, who had her at 15 and her best friend tries to talk her out of it, despite her being the promiscuous one.

The actor’s over-the-top facial expressions makes the show. It is hilarious to see these women portray young teenagers with all the stereotypical face pullings you can imagine. Rachel Jackson who plays the mum and teacher, with an incredible Scottish accent, really lives up to the young mum struggles you can imagine in working class Scotland. The two actors portraying the young girls, Morgan Drew Glasgow as the friend Kelly and Dani Heron as our heroine Stacey are both really believable in their characters, regardless of Stacey being an unfinished character overall.

The script has some aspects that could have been done differently. There might be a reason the story is set in 2005, but it could have easily been more relatable/commentating if it was set today. The scene changes seems quite abrupt and without following a red line, but that can also be down to directing, not necessarily the script. That being said, some of Stacey’s monologue moments has a certain rhyme to it, not like spoken words, only just noticeable. This could easily be completely out of the genre and actually not fit with the style they are going for, but it is so subtle and clever that it just adds a new level of intelligence to the play.

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Emma Betty
Emma Betty

Emma Betty is 28 and a nurse in Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Emma has the Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Soundtrack (On CD!) to blame for her love for Musical Theatre, which she found in her parents living room pretty much as soon as she was old enough to know what it was. She began combining her love for Theatre, the Internet and Writing while she was still at school, through various blogs and on social media. Having moved to London in 2013, she launched Upper Circle 4 years later. A couple of years on, she is delighted to have a small team and is so grateful to those helping Upper Circle to grow every day!

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