Live Theatre Newcastle – 30th June 2026
Reviewed by Sandra Little
4****
Mother? Is a 1 hour play written and performed by Rachel Stockdale. It is based on interviews and workshops Rachel recorded with around 100 women and caregivers in the North East in an attempt to answer the question, “What and who is a mother?” The performance investigates a wide range of aspects of motherhood including adoption, fostering, IVF treatment, and women’s experiences of pregnancy and birth. It explores the definition of a mother in its broadest sense.
The set for this play represents a school nursery where there are lots of soft toys and a ball pool which is used to illustrate aspects of the narrative. Although Rachel is the only actor on stage, she is quickly able to change her demeanour, expression and tone of voice to represent a diverse range of interviewees. The only other technique used to represent the views of the women interviewed is recordings of other actors speaking the words of these women. One stand out recording for me is the recollections of a midwife from Trinidad who came to Britain as part of the Windrush generation.
During her 1 hour on stage Rachel gave a voice to the women she met as part of her research. Conversations with women about childbirth illustrated how women sometimes had their birth plans ignored and often had to endure a C section. In contrast to this distressing revelation Rachel shares observations of mums in the playground. This for me was one of the most amusing aspects of the play with the categories of mummies such as super fit gym mummy, the very posh mummy and the rather anxious mummy giving the play a laugh out loud moment.
Another aspect of this play which absolutely struck a chord was the mum who was rushing to take her children to school before work. Although it was quite funny, it was also poignant and I did connect with that mum! The use of puppetry around this point was quite simple but added an effective dimension to the play.
There were one or two stand out lines in this performance, one of which was, “It takes a village to support a mother” which I thought was an interesting twist on the usual idea that it takes a village to raise a child. The other stand out line for me was, “No body’s perfect, we’re just trying our best.” As a mother I would absolutely agree with this statement! I would love to see the themes explored from interviews developed further. The material used for this performance has the potential to grow.