Presented by Christine Harris and HIT Productions in association with GFour Productions
Reviewed Wednesday 30th November 2011
http://www.motherhoodthemusical.com.au/
http://www.hitproductions.com.au/
Venue: Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, King William Road, Adelaide
Season: 8pm nightly Thurs to Sat to 10th December plus 2pm matinees both Saturdays
Duration: 1hr 30min incl interval
Tickets: General Admission – adult $59.50/conc $54.50/Group 10+ $54.50
Bookings: BASS 131 246 or http://www.bass.net.au
HIT Productions brought Menopause: the musical to Adelaide and now, following a similar formula, comes Motherhood: the musical, subtitled “the good, the bad…and the laundry”. It is a light-hearted and generally light-weight production, written by Sue Fabisch. There is nothing profound or heavy-going expressed in this piece, just loads of fun.
Amy is a wide-eyed and overly-enthusiastic first-time mother-to-be, but that is all about to change as three of her friends, all veterans of motherhood, host a baby shower for her. They are a diverse crowd, representing a range of parenting styles. Brooke is a career lawyer, who is rarely at home to spend time with her children, Trisha is a single, working mother, going through a divorce, and Barbara is an overworked and tired mother of five. In 90 minutes and 20 songs they tell of both the horrors and the joys of becoming and being a mother, and the many detrimental effects that pregnancy and birth have on a woman's body and mind along the way.
While listening to the music the word that springs quickly to mind is 'recycling'. Although written by Fabisch, the original music seems derivative. You almost, but not quite put your finger on a melody here and there. A couple of songs are existing works with new lyrics. The Way We Were, becomes How Great They Were, with 'memories' changed to 'mammaries', and Good Lovin' become Good Drugs, with reference to epidural injections.
Director, Terence O'Connell, has created a lively piece with plenty of pace and Amelia Christo, as Barbara, Ziggy Clements, as Brooke, Jacqueline Hoy, as Trisha, and Rebecca Moore, as Amy, make for a tight ensemble contributing plenty of enthusiasm and energy. Although the choreography is generally fairly basic, there is plenty of comedy and some good singing, as well as convincing acting. Each of the four brings out aspects of motherhood through their characterisations and we see that these women have complex relationships with their children and each has a different understanding of what motherhood means as well as considerable commonality. Through these similarities and differences, brought out through their strong performances, they are able to traverse a wide variety of comical and, occasionally, poignant situations.
The audience was a very varied group, male and female, young to old, with at least one obviously pregnant young woman that I noticed. She would, I am sure, have associated herself with the Amy character, but I wonder what she made of it all? The women in the audience seemed to be universally laughing at the performance but the men seemed divided, most laughing along with the women and a few straight-faced, presumably because they either didn't understand, or didn't want to.
The set was an adult sized, brightly coloured kindergarten playroom, with a table, chairs, illuminated wall panels and a few other odd items, a few trolleys or a wheelchair marking the location changes to a supermarket or a hospital. It follows the keep it simple principle, with an uncluttered set allowing plenty of performance space and freedom of movement, which the cast used to good effect.
This is a show for just about everybody, apart from those few men that would rather not know too much about this sort of 'secret women's business. It is only here for a short time and the Space Theatre is an intimate venue. The season has already added more performances, so be quick to book for this one, if you still can.
Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Arts Editor, Glam Adelaide.
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