Jack and Sarah
Written and directed by Tim Sullivan
Based on the 1995 film Jack and Sarah
The Mill at Sonning
Runs until 14 June 2026
Star rating: 3.5
Photograph credit: Pamela Raith
This show about grief and finding ways of moving on is tenderly entertaining without being mawkish. It is also often funny despite the sadness of its main narrative. This production is its debut.
Jack (George Banks) is a successful lawyer whose wife dies in childbirth leaving him with a baby girl named Sarah, after her mother,.He is, of course, distraught. But eventually, after many set-backs, he finds ways of moving on through the network of four people who support him and one, his boss (Lucy Doyle) who is stereotypically, coldly self-interested. We are firmly in the present: the mobile phones are a clichéd but useful signal.
Banks is convincing as the bereaved father – ricocheting from exasperation to weeping in despair and from sardonic comments to passionate concern for his baby daughter – which he has to do around various well meaning people: his mother-in-law, Phil (Sarah Moyle), his doctor father (Neil Roberts), the builder who is slowly renovating Jack’s house (Lee White) and William (Rufus Hound) a down-and-out antiquarian bookseller who simply wanders in. Hound has the patrician voice, addictive drinking and shabby shamble perfectly. Then Amy (Anya de Villiers) the fast food delivery girl turns up and seems to bond with the baby …
There is a lot of good dialogue in Tim Sullivan’s script and this cast works well together. Subplots abound too. The audience can see Phil getting pally with William long before Jack does. The builder has domestic issues of his own and Jack’s predatory boss Anna see the young widower as easy game. Amy, meanwhile, is trying to build a career as a singer songwriter and several of her sings occur in the narrative. Da Villiers sings with gentle sweetness.
Jack and Sarah is slickly entertaining and nicely directed. Moreover, it somehow manages to deal with a tragic subject in the rom-com format so there are plenty of chuckles and it ends on an upbeat note. On the other hand it feels a crowd-pleasingly obvious in places.
