Son of the Father by Pip Utton

Jesus had been accompanied in Jerusalem by his twelve disciples and other followers, including his mother Mary. The gospels of Mark and John have Mary at the foot of the cross as her son suffers and dies.  Joseph, Jesus’ father appears only in the various stories surrounding Jesus’ birth and a visit to the Temple at the age of twelve.

In Son of the Father, Joseph has come to Jerusalem to witness his son’s crucifixion. It is the morning of the resurrection. Mary wakes from a troubled sleep, she needs to go to the tomb and prepare her son’s body for burial. But she is faced by Joseph. They have not spoken since she left him four years previously to accompany Jesus on his ministry.

In Son of the Father Mary and Joseph are a very ordinary couple whose lives have been transformed by extraordinary events. Joseph’s life has been devastated and Mary’s elevated to the mother of the Messiah. 

(70 mins, 2 on the road domestically 3 internationally, workshops available)

Writer's Note
Son of the Father has not been written from a believer’s point of view nor does it attempt to disprove or argue against the gospel stories. Son of the Father is a drama, and as such there is no need to justify any of the ideas or statements in it with any historical accuracy.

Photo: Laurel Wade

Reviews

The Daily Express
"Pip Utton’s new play is beautifully acted and written. It is powerful, moving, disturbing and thought provoking. It is the best play I have seen at this year's festival."
Carl Sarler

Scotsgay Aug 2004
"We all know the basic story. Joseph (Pip Utton) and Mary (Mae Brogan) have a kid named Jesus who gets killed, but told like this. The first shock is the Yorkshire accents, but if Northern Broadsides can do Macbeth that way why shouldn't Utton? After all if they are speaking in English what accent should they have? Joseph is a loving father who has just seen his son Jesus killed. He is a simple carpenter who is separated from his wife Mary who is a religious nutter who believes her son to be the messiah and is so far off her trolley that she believes god is the father. Something Joseph regards as "stupid fairy-stories and conjuring tricks". We explore their relationship and the gory details of their sex life at an early age. Just 2 actors on stage with an object used as a seat, lights that go up at the start and down at the end, but with a script that is a work of sheer genius performed by actors who could not be bettered. Very occasionally one sees something at a theatre that induces a feeling of serenity and a desire to do nothing but sit down and reflect on it. This is theatre of that quality. Without a doubt my highlight of the 2004 Fringe."
Martin Powell

EdinburghGuide.com 18 August 2004
"After Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ, Jesus is big bucks. Son Of The Father was nearly packed out, which in all likelihood it would not have been a year ago. The play spares us from all of the blood and gore of ‘that’ movie, instead following a meeting between Mary and Joseph after their son’s crucifixion.
What is truly great about this play by playwright and actor Pip Utton is the sense of realism within the arguments between the two. Joseph is entirely distraught by his son’s needless death and furious at being cut off from his life by Mary. There is shouting, swearing and even violence, which gives the audience a clearer and more realistic view of these characters. Beautifully acted, Mary appears slightly mad in this production while Joseph, though he does display a temper, is more rational. Therefore, we the audience are not sure what to believe about Jesus because of Mary’s behaviour. What would you think if your wife claimed that her son was the Messiah? I’d get a divorce! Joseph just seems far more convincing in every argument that is put forward.
This is a great show with fabulous acting by the pair. It can be a little deep for a sunny fringe afternoon......but when was the last time we had one of those?"
© Alex Eades

Theatre Guide London
"In Pip Utton's moving and thought-provoking new play Joseph and Mary (played sensitively by the author and Mae Brogan) meet after some estrangement on the morning after their son's crucifixion. He is a loving and grieving father blaming her for letting this horror happen, while she is a dedicated believer who is certain it was necessary. She calls him too small a man to comprehend Jesus' greatness; he thinks her the ultimate stage mother, driving their gentle son to fulfil her own political revolutionary dreams. His pain at hearing his dying son cry out that his father has forsaken him leads to her sudden understanding of the Annunciation - or is that just a madwoman's frantic rationalisation? Since we know how the story turned out, Utton doesn't have to give Mary's position equal time, and can instead make us see what it must have looked and felt like then, when the two characters were not saints, but just husband and wife torn apart by tragedy."
Gerald Berkowitz

****About Theatre.com
"If any one person epitomises the best of the Edinburgh Fringe it is Pip Utton. A writer/actor, he has brought us Adolf, Resolution, Only the Lonely, Stone Me It's the Lad Himself and Hancock's Last Half-Hour. All are very different from each other (with the exception of the last two, which were played as a double bill in 1997) but all are gripping one-man pieces, characterised by deep understanding and superb acting.
This year Utton has taken his work a step further: instead of his trademark one-man shows, Son of the Father is a two-hander, dealing with the immediate aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion and its effect on the relationship between Mary and Joseph, played by Mae Brogan and Utton respectively. That relationship is explosive, Mary having left Joseph and the rest of the family to support Jesus on his mission - indeed, according to Joseph she was the driving force behind that mission - and now Jesus is dead and Joseph, totally distraught, wants Mary to return to the family.
Both actors give tremendous performances: Mary's almost manic devotion to the cause, Joseph's utter despair and feelings of rejection, and the huge gulf between the two who still, in spite of everything, love each other, are brought to painful life by two consummate actors.
So why no five stars? There were times when, for me, the language did not sit easily with the style of playing, which is very naturalistic. In the extremely intimate surroundings of Pleasance Beside, every twitch of the features, even the smallest movement of the body, and the most subtle vocal inflection has an immediate impact, but the language, which is at times literary and not quite naturalistic spoken dialogue, just occasionally sounds off-key, not quite right. Perhaps the vast majority of people would never notice it: I don't know. But it's certainly a show not to be missed."
Peter Lathan

Technical Specification  Click here for Son of the Father Tech Spec

Promotional Material Click here for Son of the Father Promo

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