Trump is in power. No, really – Trump is in power! Has the world gone mad? And how do I find my place in it? Milk and Gall uses the frightening sense of dislocation that many felt with the election of Donald Trump to frame the equally jolting experience that is new motherhood. It’s just a shame Mathilde Dratwa’s play is being staged a year later than originally planned, which would have meant a run that coincided with the chaotic and frightening final days of Trump’s presidency. The piece risks feeling slightly dated as a result – but this is still a striking debut with a wonderfully confident, surreal swagger to it.
Dratwa is based in New York and the play unfolds in a Brooklyn apartment, which looks impressively accurate (designer Mona Camille has a sharp eye for detail) then cracks and splinters as new mum Vera’s world begins to implode. Vera asks Alexa how to talk to her baby – and Alexa starts to talk back, only the advice she offers grows increasingly strange. An FBI agent storms into the living room on the hunt for a lost mother; a model baby is eaten alive and, in one particularly memorable moment, Hillary Clinton crawls out of the TV and bursts into song.
Director Lisa Spirling handles the comic flourishes with control and panache and encourages lively performances from her cast of five. MyAnna Buring is physically compelling as new mum Vera: every movement is accompanied by a wince in the early days following her C-section and there’s a striking disconnect between the ferocity of Vera’s speech and the fragility of her body. The whole ensemble is strong but Jenny Galloway almost stops time with her comic timing as she rattles through a host of kooky cameos.
Lots of the laughter comes with the sting of truth but the dislocated scenes never quite add up to something bigger. Vera’s potential post-partum depression is mentioned but rarely felt and the dramatic encounters between Vera and her family and friends feel underpowered; a sideshow to the stronger and more truthful comic skits.
At Theatre 503, London, until 27 November
