Sit or Kneel
Rating: ★★★★
Venue: The Other Palace, London
Cast: Mimi Nation-Dixon

Sit or Kneel is a sharply observed, darkly funny coming-of-age story about identity, expectation, and finding your place in a world that wasn’t built for you. Margot is in her twenties, accidentally ordained, and leading a parish she doesn’t quite understand, while quietly unravelling behind the scenes.

Following a highly successful run at the Fringe, Sit or Kneel has made it to the Studio stage at London’s The Other Palace for five stellar nights. Mimi Nation-Dixon stars as Margot in this one woman, one hour show about an unconventional life as a young female vicar in a small English town. Nation-Dixon enters the simplistically set stage, a vicar’s robe and a farmhand jacket hanging for the audience to see, a single wicker basket, and a tall table that represents the podium at the church. Margot is a twenty-five year old non-conventional vicar whose hour long monologue and inner thoughts brought laughter from the audience and identified an invisible string of relatability to those in the audience who know the fear of navigating your mid to late 20s, imposter syndrome, and the looming darkness of the inevitable big 3-0. 

There’s something so special about a one-woman show, the particular kind of energy that it requires from an actor, and Nation-Dixon performed this exceptionally. There is a very specific feeling of navigating early adulthood and the taboo topics you seem to face left and right - especially loneliness. When you’re experiencing a happy moment  and expressing that genuine happiness, and in the same moment, hitting a wall of loneliness. Given the simplicity of the set and costuming of this show, Nation-Dixon expressed these complicated emotions through Margot’s facial expressions in such an impressive way. As a woman, I recognized those emotions in a personal way. 

Although this show is on the shorter side, I found many highlights throughout the evening. The lighting was used articulately to create seamless movement between scenes, making it clear to the audience that a new scene was taking place in a new day, or even a new season. 

Additionally, while Margot would be discussing her takes on her current Parrish, the ominous Suzie, or her crush, Jonathan, she would sometimes have her inner thoughts played aloud as a whisper through the speakers for the audience to hear. I appreciated this second layer to her story, as a means to drive home the point that Margot simply wasn’t being as honest with the audience about her internal thoughts. To complement this, there was a clever use of technology as a bit of symbolism, a signifier of loneliness for young women in 2025. Margot began to tell a story about her best friend, Bumble, and the conversations that she and Bumble have. This was a clever way of highlighting that Margot did not actually have anyone she considered a best friend - at least, this was my interpretation. She mentioned uses of ChatGPT to solve some of her problems. While individually, Bumble BFF and ChatGPT may be used as helpful tools, it seemed that Margot uses them as a bit of a crutch, which made her all the more relatable. 

My favorite bit of the evening was the audience participation of Margot’s Parrish crush, Jonathan. Margot made continual comments to Suzy and Johnathan in the audience, in a way that was comical, but this came to a head when she selected an audience member to be ‘Johnathan.’ Nation-Dixon set this up so well, creating a comical scene that was enhanced by the audience participant and improv. This is an element that I imagine would be quite a funny continuation as it would differ from night to night, with something new to offer each time. 

Overall, I found myself smiling throughout most of the hour, chuckling along, and genuinely intrigued to know more about Margot. Sit or Kneel is a strong show and there is something to take away - especially for women. I would be eager to see the story of Margot broadened on stage over time, and I look forward to projects that Mimi Nation-Dixon delivers in the future. Sit or Kneel will be playing through 26 October at The Other Palace.

You can book tickets to see Sit or Kneel, here.

Review by Miranda