A Child of Science

In 1978, three pioneering doctors changed the world of fertility as we know it. Supported by an army of immensely brave women from all over the UK, Patrick Steptoe, Robert Edwards and Jean Purdy achieved the impossible: they created human life in vitro. Faced with fierce criticism and hostility and hounded by the media for 'playing God', trials had to be kept largely under wraps. But the trio's determination to give hope to the thousands of families struggling to conceive eventually led to the first 'test-tube baby' and the creation of IVF, a procedure which has since supported the birth of over twelve million babies worldwide. Gareth Farr's play A Child of Science is a fictionalized account of this true story of ambition and courage, based on extensive research and interviews with embryologists and fertility doctors, as well as those affected by and enabled by IVF. It was first performed at Bristol Old Vic in 2024, directed by Matthew Dunster.