When grief comes up against faith…

…and perhaps old fashioned principle, who wins?

The Southbury Child, a play written by Dartmouth playwright Stephen Beresford and set in the town, examines our attitudes to the Church and its relevance in these days when solace is found
not in traditional religion but the modern community of social media.

This week the Dartington Playgoers are putting on the play at the Civic Hall in Totnes from Thursday to Saturday. Tickets from the Pulse here  Director Jeremy Balfour, , who was head of drama at Dartmouth Community College from 2007 to 2011, says the play is engrossing, humorous and upsetting in equal measure.

Taking the lead as David, the vicar whose determination NOT to allow a mother balloons in the church for her small daughter’s funeral leads to his downfall, is Tony Crocker. Tony is a seasoned theatre, TV and film actor – he was the Drunkard in Game of Thrones and a Deatheater in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One. In The Southbury Child he’s an all too human man upholding Christian rituals which few of his congregation know or care about.

“It’s full of acerbic wit and just how we communicate in real life,” Jeremy said. Asked what heaven might look like, David muses that rather than a garden he hopes it is a moderately sized city with a film festival, a tram system and possibly a Waitrose. Meanwhile the town gets behind the dead child’s mother, Tina (Laura Cameron Long) and soon their anger at the vicar’s refusal to turn the church into a theme park becomes a nasty campaign. But there is no sanctuary for David at home. His family life falls apart when it becomes obvious that his daughter is unhappy, his wife is furious and a new vicar in townlooks set to replace him.