We sat down for an exclusive interview with producer and actor, Sarita Plowman. YOU is based on writer Mark Wilson’s own adoption story – A mother waits to meet the adult son she was forced to give up for adoption when she was fifteen.
This show runs from 11-15th November at Seven Dials Playhouse – Tickets: here
Sarita, can you share what first drew you to YOU and why you felt compelled to bring this new production to life?
I took on the role of Kathleen in an earlier production of this show at the Brighton Fringe back in 2021. It is a role and play that has always stayed with me and I knew that if I were to ever produce a play it would be this one. It is not just my connection to the role and character that has driven this desire to produce this play, but my connection to the subject matter. As an unmarried, teenage mother not so long ago myself, it is not lost on me that, had 17 year old me been pregnant just two decades before I had my son, I may not have been granted the privilege (or should I say ‘right’) of seeing him grow up.
This play gives voice to generations who endured their pain in silence. How do you hope today’s audiences will receive it – and what conversations do you hope it will spark?
In the first instance, I hope the play will take the subject of forced adoption out of the shadows and give voice to so many women, their families and children who have been silenced and shamed. I hope it will spark conversations about how important a formal apology is from the government for families effected by this practice. I also hope it sparks wider conversations about the ways in which women are still denied autonomy over their bodies in varying degrees worldwide.
You’re not only producing but also acting in the play. How do you balance those two roles – especially with material that’s so emotionally charged?
I think years of being a lone parent to two children (now adults) with ASD (both with very different needs) while trying to juggle an acting career and various ‘muggle’ jobs has certainly been good practice for the multi tasking involved in the actor/producer role. In the play itself, myself and James Dangerfield take on all the characters in the story so it really is a sea of different hats to wear and balls to juggle. How do I balance these roles? Hot Yoga, walking the dog, loads of green tea and…. the occasional blast of Real Housewives.
The Seven Dials Playhouse is an intimate space. How does that closeness between audience and performers shape the experience of the piece?
This play really is a beautifully woven piece of storytelling, the writing is a gift for both the actors and the audience. My fellow actor James puts it so well when he says “the dialogue is so detailed and so thoroughly natural that it feels like we’re listening to the most real and deepest of confessions”. This intimacy with the characters lends itself so well to a smaller space and I think that physical closeness will enable the audience to feel as if they themselves are sitting in Kathleen’s living room waiting to meet her son. The play is very much about separation and connection and I hope the closeness and intimacy of the audience will create a safety for the audience to experience this.
The play features an original score. How does music weave into the storytelling for this run?
It’s interesting, each different production of this play has featured original music. The lyricism and musicality of the script which has a clear and distinct rhythm throughout really lends itself to musical accompaniment. There is something about the sensory nature of music that wraps itself so easily with the sensory nature of birth, separation, loss, connection, time passing – all things that are so hard to put into words but our wonderful composer Andrew Stewart-Buttle has managed to capture in his composition. In an otherwise, stripped back production, the music really is our fellow cast member.
What has been the most moving or surprising moment for you during this journey so far?
The most moving experience for me will have been after performing this role in Brighton back in 2021, having so many women approach me afterwards saying “that was my story” or “that was my mum’s story”. It is such an incredible honour to give voice to generations of women before me who were unable to enjoy their rights as I have. The play itself is inspired by the writer, Mark Wilson’s own adoption story, so being able to speak with him and collaborate on a story and subject that is so close to his heart is also incredibly special. My pre-show research has led me to a group of people who are campaigning for a formal apology for forced adoptions. My contact and profound sense of injustice for these women and their families has offered even more fuel to apply for funding for a UK tour so that people all over the country can hear Kathleen’s story of forced adoption so more awareness can be raised.