Amanda Whittington’s much revived Be My Baby captured the experiences of unmarried teenage mothers who, during the 1960s, were coerced into giving up their babies for adoption. There is an ongoing campaign, the Movement for an Adoption Apology, seeking contrition from the British government for those surviving women whose babies were forcibly taken away on the grounds that it was “the best thing” for them and their children.
This touching wordless piece from mask theatre company Vamos charts the story of one young woman, Susan, who accidentally becomes pregnant, but also cleverly spans 50 years to show the emotional effects on the daughter who was given up for adoption. There is a heartbreaking little scene in which we see the daughter at the 1977 Queen’s silver jubilee already crushed by a sense of loss and a lack of love.
The mask work is terrific: as ever with this talented company, it’s something of a surprise when the cast remove their masks at the end and their youthful features belie the elderly or middle-aged characters they have so fully inhabited. The storytelling is always wonderfully economical, too, with the swinging – and not so swinging – aspects of the 1960s revealed through action, music and fashion.
The interval is a mistake, though, interrupting the flow and rhythm of the story. And Rachael Savage’s assured direction has a tendency to overemphasise the crowdpleasing comic moments. That’s particularly true of the extended birth scene in the hospital, although another, when Susan and her boyfriend’s first sexual encounter takes place during the 1966 World Cup final, is very neatly handled.
There’s an occasional tendency towards stereotype, but what the show lacks in subtlety it makes up for with a vividness of feeling. We may have heard this story before, but Vamos make it seem fresh and necessary all over again.
- At Guildhall theatre, Derby, 3 and 4 February. Box office: 01332 255 800. Then touring.
