A Child of Science review

But at its best, Farr’s writing, which encourages our investment in the science behind IVF by delivering it with comprehensible clarity, has flashes of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen. The narrative spans 20 years, from when a wildly ambitious Dr Edwards first began extracting eggs from mice and rats in 1958, through to when he, gynaecologist Dr Steptoe and nurse Jean Purdy oversaw the birth of the first human baby by IVF in 1978.

Tom Felton (of Harry Potter fame) is wonderful as a single-mindedly studious and animated Dr Edwards, beavering away over test tubes or peering eagerly into microscopes. And Meg Bellamy shines as the quick-thinking, hopeful researcher Purdy, often the voice of reason in the lab. Jamie Glover’s Dr Steptoe, a man fighting for women’s rights at a time when abortion was illegal, is a brave, sensitive and forward-thinking figure. Adelle Leonce’s Margaret and Bobby Hirston’s Trevor, a fictional couple struggling to conceive, bring a much-needed personal perspective, while a multi-tasking Amy Loughton adds humour as the hospital’s chirruping Molly Rose and Margaret’s chain-smoking, God-fearing mother Mrs Sharpe.

Farr doesn’t gloss over the ethical concerns surrounding the creation of IVF. That the treatment took hundreds of trials to come to fruition, with hopeful mothers dehumanised by scientists, is an issue explored, as are the setbacks provoked by the naysaying press and religious leaders, who condemned attempts to “play God” with life and create a “Frankenbaby”.

But each time Gino Ricardo Green’s video projections cast a chorus of female singers on to the panels of Fleischle’s glass-walled set, we’re reminded that this is a powerfully positive story for so many.