The Faith Machine

Synopsis

On a beautiful September morning in New York Sophie forces Tom into a decision. The choice he makes, and the events of that day will change their lives forever. Travelling from America to Britain to a remote Greek island this epic new play explores the relationship between faith and capitalism and asks fundamental questions about the true meaning of love.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 1 September 2011

Switching time zones, and ring tones, between sharp satire and metaphysical maundering, Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new three-act play - yes, there are two intervals! - starts in New York on the morning of the fateful “Twin Towers” day ten years ago, back-pedals to a Greek island in 1998 and fast forwards again to a country house gay wedding.

With a few more backward glances, it then leaps right up to date, completing its study of the friendship and marriage between a glossy magazine foreign affairs journalist, Sophie, and a struggling novelist, Tom, who’s diverted into advertising.

These two are attractively played by rising stars Hayley Atwell and Kyle Soller: their big disagreement on this particular day is over his guilt by association with a drugs company supposedly responsible for misery in Africa.

Their row is punctuated with a commentary by Sophie’s dead father, Edward, a bishop who disowned his religion ove...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 16 September 2011:

The blurb on the back of the playtext for The Faith Machine claims that it, "explores the relationship between faith and capitalism and also fundamental questions about the true meaning of love." Blimey, that's a bit ambitious, but at the end of a superb first act I thought Alexi Kaye Campbell might just be able to pull it off. in the first scene a young couple are on the verge of splitting up because she cannot accept his decision to write copy for a pharmaceutical company which has been implicated in unethical drug trials on children in Uganda. Flashback to the girl's father, a liberal bishop, leaving the church but holding on to his version of faith, arguing with an old friend, an African bishop, about the church's repressive attitude towards homosexuality. After the first interval (the second is superfluous) Campbell fails to come up with ethical questions of this magnitude and the play descends into a predictable plot of relationship triangles. It's not helped by Hayley Atwell's failure to completely get under the skin of Sophie who is supposed to be a fearless campaigning journalist, but comes across as a Sloane with a bit of a social conscience. There are other incongruities; an American designer who apparently chooses to wear colours that clash violently and an (admittedly very funny) in-joke about the two black characters, played by the same actor, who appear to look the same to the Ukrainian housekeeper - it would have worked in Clybourne Park but it did not belong in this play. Add in a palpable anti-Americanism and The Faith Machine is a play which needed much more work before being staged - only the first act lived up to the promise....

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