Guy (Phil Cheadle) runs a medical podcast called Outside Voice, though for whatever reason, the audience is spared the specifics of whatever his controversial views are. His wife, Helen (Viss Elliot Safavi), is also a health practitioner, though her own work has, if I understood correctly, led her to climb the Civil Service ladder to the point where she secures a promotion worth celebrating. When her daughter Eve (Elle O’Donnell) asks her what she does, the answer is rather vague and non-committal, something about attending meetings and writing reports. How senior is she really? Completing the set of on-stage characters is Mike (Dan Starkey), Eve’s father and Helen’s ex, who is determined to get to the bottom of whatever shady business Guy has allegedly been conducting.
Eve has been undergoing chemotherapy, which has taken its almost inevitable toll. She confides in Guy that there’s a part of her that would like to stop treatment and let nature take its course, her quality of life being what it has become. With the world being what it is, can you blame her? Anyway, Guy talks her out of it (that is, Eve is persuaded to continue her course of treatment), but there’s a twist, and a significant one at that, which grievously upsets both Eve’s biological parents when they find out what’s been going on. Cue dramatic tension.
The four actors remain on stage for the duration of the performance, seated on the sides of the stage whenever they are not in a scene. Louise Anderson’s lighting design sees to it that this is never a distraction, and it also allows for swift scene changes. Not that there’s a huge amount of set to be moved around, and it’s versatile enough to make clear where each scene is set, but without drastic alterations with every change of location.
There’s Guy and his allegedly wacky scientific hypotheses, and there’s Eve and her work in the Government. It might be populist to trust neither, but it is also frankly logical. Matt Morrison’s script is reluctant, somewhat understandably, to get bogged down in the details of medical and scientific ethics – even if there are ways of making legal proceedings interesting on stage, if one considers plays like Twelve Angry Men or Witness for the Prosecution. Indeed, it glosses over some moral arguments. Mike’s deep dive into Guy’s dodgy scientific findings results in a ‘eureka’ moment all too soon, again, without details of what precisely Guy did or didn’t do, and the implications of such action/inaction, that made Mike react as though this were the greatest injustice in the history of the world.
Some examples of Guy’s supposedly weird and damaging ideas would also have given the audience something to chortle at. The play is not completely devoid of humour, but there was a need for more comic relief as every conversation involved grappling with weighty issues. As I discussed with a fellow theatregoer afterwards, the show starts in medias res and indeed finishes without a definitive conclusion, leaving patrons to speculate (or not) as to what possibly happens to the characters after the play ends abruptly. To borrow a term from horticulture, the judicious pruning of the script has some benefits – the result being a one-act play – but in this instance, there is scope to flesh things out more. Still, the cast provide convincing performances in a dense and thoughtful play.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Helen’s got the biggest break of her career – the chance to lead a government health committee. But her husband’s science podcast is pushing back against the mainstream. How can anyone know which side to trust? And who stands to get caught in the crossfire?
Guy – Phil Cheadle
Eve – Elle O’Donnell
Helen – Viss Elliot Safavi
Mike – Dan Starkey
Written by Matt Morrison
Directed by Hanna Berrigan
Set and Costume Design – Nicky Bunch
Lighting Design – Louise Anderson
Artwork – Rebecca Pitt
Sound Design – Ed Lewis
Stage Manager – Rose Hockady
Production Manager – Tim Stanley
Producer and General Manager – Alex Deacon
OUTSIDE VOICE
Soho Poly
1 to 5 July 2025
