REVIEW: A Stitch in Time by Julia Pagett at Bridge House Theatre 24 March – 4 April 2026

‘Tautly written intergenerational drama’ ★★★⯪☆

This is Julia Pagett’s debut play as a writer and it’s tautly written, convincing and full of truths we almost all recognise. It runs 65 minutes and I suspect, that strong as it is, she didn’t quite know how to conclude it because it ends on a rather unsatisfactory question mark.

Bridge House Theatre is configured slightly differently from usual with a bed at one end of the more-or-less transverse space and a small table at the other. And we’re in the lives of two couples whose homes are flexibly represented in the set. On the one hand we meet Alan (Jonathan Kemp) and Marjorie (Rowena Bentley), a tightly bonded older couple who bicker constantly. Then there’s their son Ellis (Joshua Glenister) and his partner, Tara (played by the playwright). The play starts at the point when Ellis and Tara appear to be separating and then unfolds the back story in a nifty series of flashbacks and flashforwards. It is a credit to Luke Adamson’s directing that we are never in any doubt where we are in the chronology.

It ranges across a wide range of issues including fathers and sons, mothers and sons, grief, abortion, infidelity, cross-generation tension and a lot more. It is also, in places, funny. Joshua Kemp’s character, in particular, is given to saying outrageous thing so disingenuously that you can only laugh at him. He’s well-meaning if irritating and we’ve all met him. Kemp nails that rather well. Rowena Bentley’s Marjorie is anxious and loving – constantly making lasagne – but continuously annoying her husband who knows how to push her buttons. And do they still have sex, as Tara winds Ellis up by asking? Yes, I expect so. Their arguments are part of their deep-rooted underlying affection

Joshua Glenister puts in a fine performance as Ellis whether he’s shouting in fury at Tara, pleading with his parents to “behave” when he first takes her home, excited at the prospect of becoming a father or trying to reconcile a whole package of mixed feelings. Neither he nor his father are very good at talking about emotions and the scene with Kemp when Glenister’s character is younger, and still living at home, is nicely nuanced.

The show, however, really belongs to Pagett in every sense. Her Tara is brittle, playful, dangerously sexy and deeply troubled. She’s an impressive actor. There is also a good scene in which Marjorie and Tara discuss the latter’s pregnancy – full of half-said things, silences, awkwardness and some of the honesty which women often find easier than men.

The play’s short scenes are separated by busy electronic bleeping and the hands moving on an illuminated clock above the bed. Neither adds much to the narrative although these tiny interludes give the actors time to move into new positions or make minor costume changes.

I’m interested to see what Pagett writes next because this is certainly a promising start. 

A Stitch in Time by Julia Pagett

Directed by Luke Adamson

Drayton Arms Theatre/Bridge House Theatre

24 March – 4 April

BOX OFFICE https://thebridgehousetheatre.co.uk/shows/stitch-in-time/

Cast

Julia Pagett

Joshua Glenister

Jonathan Kemp

Rowena Bentley