Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nir Paldi, George Mann.

If you stop and think about it, the chances are you will talk yourself out of almost anything that your heart desires, the mind and the soul will argue, the body will become a wreck and the fallout of this will have serious repercussions on the relationship of all those you love and hold dear.

However, a baby is not a commodity, it is not that new stereo you have been promising yourself, it is not that holiday of a lifetime in which you embrace all the world has to offer and it not the wedding you have dreamed of since you were small. It is a different scenario every waking moment, it is the effect of warfare between ideals, it is the imagination overload and the horror filled terror masquerading as the ultimate extension of yourself; it is also love, unconditional, often unrequited, unqualified, unreserved and absolute.

For some the idea of bringing children into this world is filled with pain, they either cannot conceive or, until recently, the law was completely out of step with opinion and sensible thinking. There are many reasons to not have a child, there is only one reason to have them, and that is love.

How you take stock and see yourself going past the point where the choice of No Kids because of environmental concerns or other factors or to have them is being talked about openly, whether through surrogacy or adoption is something every loving couple, and even people on their own who wish to share their life with someone they can look after, educate and be friends with, have the right to do.

In Nir Paldi and George Mann’s gorgeously presented play, part flight of wonderful over-active train of thought, at other moments the humility of what a child means to them as a family, No Kids is a battering ram of humour and understandable sadness, it is the combination of the end result, that for the majority, no matter our orientation, the condition of our age, we want a family to nurture; it is a concept that is frightening, unrelenting and powerful.

To have children or to say to your partner No Kids is a conversation we must all have but as Nir Paldi and George Mann show with cracking charm, it is a topic that will leave you feeling afraid and elated at the same time. A huge congratulations to both actors for making sense of a difficult time in anyone’s life, a sincerely beautiful production.

Ian D. Hall