SCENE IT: Family and forgiveness explored in tender YOU SHOULD GO IN

Barbara Loots

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The Origen Productions presented, YOU SHOULD GO IN, currently onstage at the Baxter Theatre’s Masambe Theatre is a dramatic exploration of family, abandonment and the complicated road to forgiveness.

In YOU SHOULD GO IN, written and performed by Emma Amber, the audience meets Olly in the waiting room of a step-down retirement facility where she finds herself at a cross roads: Her estranged father does not have long to live, and a well-meaning nurse, Alice (played by Taylyn Miller), seeks to persuade Olly that this may be her last chance to say all she needs to say to her father. But 20 years of parental neglect is a lot to forgive and forget in one visit…  

It is then no surprise that Olly at numerous intervals accuses Alice of finding new forms of emotional manipulation in an attempt to convince her that she should give in to her father’s dying wish to see his daughter. The interaction between Olly and Alice plays out as daddy-issues meets guilt-tripping, which does presents moments of humour in between the unfolding drama.

As the play deals with family relationships and associated trauma an audience will find YOU SHOULD GO IN relatable at some level (degree varying depending on own experience) as everyone has some form of emotional scar that can be attributed to family dynamics. Within that context the family/loss/forgiveness angle is both a trigger warning and the selling point for the play.

Amber gives a strong performance as Olly, with her monologues delivering the most memorable moments. She has stage presence holds your attention. That strength juxtaposed with Miller’s soft spoken, at times not very audible, nurse Alice however makes for a strange onstage pairing. The two performance styles are bit jarring. This all paired with the lighting design by director Harley Ferguson (which can benefit from a tad more nuance), results in a theatrical experience that feels at odds with itself.

Though Nurse Miller’s attempts to persuade Olly to see opportunity for healing reveals her own interesting back story of guilt and loss, that’s perhaps a separate play;  Olly’s story could hit harder as a one-person performance seeing as YOU SHOULD GO IN feels mainly introspective and monologue driven.

The play reads deeply personal from a creative perspective but does not come across as overtly manipulative towards its audience until the end when it steps outside the realm of theatre with a home video sequence. Creative vision can be driven by personal experience (and often is), but one must guard against crossing the line where your audience may feel tricked into sympathising with characters, rather than allowing character development to speak for itself through the art of performance.

The moving new drama, YOU SHOULD GO IN, is a tender play that unpacks deeply human emotions rooted in broken bonds. It is onstage at the Masambe Theatre until 25 April 2026. Tickets can be booked online through Webtickets.