With the recent appointment of the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE (yes, I had to look up her ‘proper’ title) came some frankly bizarre consternation from certain religious practitioners of a traditionalist disposition who took umbrage, to put it lightly, that a woman was appointed as the most senior cleric in the Church of England. This play’s brief London run could not, in some respects, have been timelier – Margot (Mimi Nation-Dixon) has become the incumbent, to use the church’s lingo, of a rural parish.
But she had previously applied elsewhere and had been turned down, in at least one instance explicitly because the parish had wanted a male priest. Is it still possible in this day and age, with all the equal opportunities legislation in place, for this to happen? Short answer: yes. A longer answer is provided elsewhere. Not that the play spends very long on this point (although it could have done), jumping headfirst into the broad nature of parish life. Margot has taken charge of a small congregation, which means there aren’t very many parishioners to be introduced to, which in turn makes for a show that is easy to follow.
Costume change times were kept minimal by having an on-stage clothes rack (why don’t more single-performer shows think of this?) and while there were a couple of other characters’ voices taken on by Nation-Dixon, this was not one of those plays where two dozen or more people are each given distinct voices and mannerisms. A love interest, Jonathan, partly played by a member of the audience, who was given sufficient prompts, ended up having a rather complicated series of contacts with Margot. Was it credible that a younger man would ‘habitually attend’ (to use church vocabulary) Sunday worship? According to YouGov, yes.
The story therefore has credibility, and like any new leader or manager who joins an organisation with a view to shaking things up, Margot discovers there are certain things that shouldn’t be dispensed with after all. Seeing a gradual decline of sorts into a state of loneliness wasn’t an easy watch, even if it did provide some much needed dramatic tension – this was not exactly a toxic parish. It is highly unlikely that she was alone in straying into lines of thinking that were substantially different from the acts of worship and devotion she was leading her flock through.
Music permeated proceedings – both ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’, with Madonna’s ‘Like A Prayer’ bookending the show. I shall leave it to others to determine whether ‘Like A Virgin’ would have been a more inspired choice or not. Some of the show’s humour didn’t land as well as it could have done with the audience at the performance I attended, however – I wonder whether a London crowd simply didn’t fully resonate with the rural setting, or perhaps we simply live in a society where there are far more people who don’t go to church than those who do. Occasionally the recorded music overpowered Margot’s monologue, which didn’t help either. Still, this was an insightful overview into the challenges faced by young clergy in the post-Christian era.
Review by Chris Omaweng
Margot is not your average vicar. But then again – who is?
Margot is in her twenties, accidentally ordained, and leading a parish she doesn’t quite understand, while quietly unravelling behind the scenes.
Set in a village full of unsolicited advice and passive-aggressive casserole drops, Sit or Kneel is an ode to rural British life: its charm, its eccentricities, and the quiet pressure to appear perfectly fine at all times. It’s a play that digs into gender, grief, ambition and the bizarre theatre of everyday life – all with wit, warmth, and emotional bite.
Written and performed by Mimi Nation-Dixon
Creative Consultant – Cecily Nash
SIT OR KNEEL
The Other Palace Studio
21 to 26 October 2025
