An interesting concept which unfortunately hides a number of harmful negative stereotypes.
(the) Woman is a play by Jane Upton, produced by New Perspectives and Royal & Derngate, Northampton. It depicts the challenges new mothers face in regaining their sense of self. Following M from the birth of her first child, it is presented in a series of snapshot events through over a few years, following a number of themes including M’s career, family, and friends. Unfortunately, an engaging idea results in an experience which, though produced and performed well, felt uncomfortable to watch.
The structure of the play, with multiple “snapshots” of life over the course of a few years, allows for story to be told with just enough information for the audience to follow along. However, this sparse information led to a few scenes where I struggled to understand the context until a fair way through, meaning they were difficult to follow or appreciate properly. A number of scenes used techniques which could have been impactful had they been repeated, but this rarely occurred. One example where this did happen were two scenes which involved M pitching the idea for the play as we watched, giving context into scenes that I had not initially been able to follow. However, a lot of the dialogue in these scenes felt like being hit over the head with a detailed explanation of exactly what emotion or lesson should have resulted for the audience, rather than allowing room for interpretation.
The various side characters were enjoyable, or at least memorable. Although there were a number of characters I found myself disliking, whether that was intended by the writer or not, the actors themselves did an excellent job of bringing life into even the smaller roles. Characters’ personalities and influence on M were established quickly and clearly, and were watchable despite being mostly stereotypes. There were also some scenes which were truly moving, and I think this is a credit to both the actors and their direction, as these topics were bookended with scenes which were impactful only in how angry I was at the stereotyping involved.
My largest issue was with the main character M who, I believe, was intended to be a “raw” depiction of a new mother struggling, but instead came across as an unlikeable and harmful stereotype of an overemotional and hypocritical mother. At times it even felt like the character had been written by someone trying to push these damaging stereotypes. There were certainly moments where I felt sympathetic towards her, but these were overshadowed by times where she appeared unreasonable, This is of course not a criticism of Lizzy Watts who played M, who gave a brilliant performance despite my issues with the play.
I went to this hoping that, although the topic of motherhood is not relatable for me, I would be able to sympathise with these struggles and learn something new. Certainly, that was the case for a large portion of the audience, as there was plenty of laughter and sounds of agreement from around me, but the humour just wasn’t appealing to me – if anything, I felt like I’d been left out of the “club” of motherhood, and insulted at the expectation that we all should be laughing at M being hostile towards the characters trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to help her. I expected this play to be catered towards a specific audience which I am not a part of, but I was surprised by just how excluded I felt.