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Mom's the Word is a collaboration by six women, all mothers, that
closed at the Globe Theatre last Sunday night. Through a series of stories,
monologues, poems, and songs, the actors shared their experiences of
motherhood. The audience, mostly women, alternated between shrieks of laughter and knowing grins. To our horror, despite our lack of motherhood, we found ourselves nodding along and grinning like idiots. Everyone can identify with motherly comments like "Well, no wonder you can't find your shirt, it's hanging up!" There wasn't a straight face in the house when Barbara's son ran away from the swimming pool changeroom and she streaked across the stage after him. Sex after childbirth, or rather, lack of sex, was parodied using a banana and a mop handle, among other props. Another risque scene had Deborah admitting she was a mother by flinging her dress over her head and squirting breast milk at the other actors. The play also dealt a little bit | with theserious side of
motherhood. One actress spoke of her experiences with her premature baby. At
one point during her son's hospital stay, she wandered into the nursery and
inadvertently caught six surgeons standing around her baby's incubator, operating
to save his collapsed lungs. Her fears struck a receptive chord in the audience
of parents. The play was an eye-opener about life after childbirth - the sudden switch in role from a multi-faceted individual to a mother. At times during the play, it made us think that all mothers hate their kids, hate themselves, feel like shit all the time, and lose all sense of identity. We came away from the play with some serious questions. Will we really look at our children and think "asshole", as Deborah did? Will the rest of our lives be consumed by our | babies' dependency on us? Most of all, is motherhood worth it? The conclusion of the six women was a definite yes. They had that touch of sentimentality that only mothers seem to have and which we found difficult to understand. They shared their experiences with a humorous perspective that showed clearly how much fun they had being mothers. All six women were unafraid to demonstrate their experiences in an open, truthful manner that taught us a lot about what our mothers went through, both good and bad. Our conclusion was that the show was thoroughly enjoyable even though we aren't mothers, and we're glad to put off motherhood a little while longer. |