This debut solo show by Katherine Kotz about five women and different aspects and attitudes to motherhood is certainly ambitious, and highlights some thorny and some hilarious areas of women’s lives. Katherine’s talent is to effortlessly become these women, multi-rolling simply yet cleverly fully fleshed out characters complete with back stories and accents which are exceptionally good.
Original and packed with punchy line upon line
The first one we meet is the first time mum to be, complete with bump so realistic it fooled many in the audience, noted by the reactions when she removed it. The audience play the part of her colleagues to whom she is giving a presentation. She is trying to be the professional woman at work and for people to ignore her belly bump, but she eventually addresses it, recognising herself as the “elephant in the room”. Her ambivalence reflects many ambitious women’s realities of wondering whether they have to give up their career or whether they will be replaced by younger model “Luci with an i” who can’t even spell her own name properly. Luci looks like “a laminated Barbie Doll” she says with resignation, and that she always thought that babies were something that happened to other people, “like Salsa classes, or dogging”.
The second character is a Northern woman who has decided she does not want children – breaking a taboo which is seldom talked of; a secret opinion shared by many women but rarely admitted to as there is so much stigma attached to it. It’s fascinating to hear from such a character with openness and compassion, and to be reminded that in any decision made, there are losses to bear. The third character is an Aussie new mum whose baby is not going to get in the way of her online influencer presence and career; while the fourth is an exhausted mum of two whose life seems upended as a result of her children. The last one is also a mum with many other things on her plate and these last two have some profound and interesting things to say about motherhood and the impossible balance of bringing up children and influencing or supporting them in exactly the right way, and the critical toll it takes on a woman’s self-esteem to give and give and not be replenished. Yet all performed with humour and confident gentleness, as well as astute perceptiveness.
Katherine’s comedy balanced with nuance, depth and pathos is perfectly timed throughout the whole show, and the material is both clever and laugh-out-loud funny, as well as being original and packed with punchy line upon line. Katherine is genuinely and uniquely entertaining, and has created completely relatable characters who are instantly recognisable. She excels in the character work yet the show does lack a certain cohesion, even though there is a link between the first and last stories, it would benefit from a way of finding a thread throughout: something to connect them, beyond women being viewed very much through the prism of reproductive functions. It’s like a lovely roast dinner that needs gravy to bring it all together. It’s good to have the modern changing of costumes on the stage, however, the changes exclude the audience rather than include them. If the changes were simplified and the audience was either included by talked to, or had something else to look at while the change was happening, it would instantly step this up a gear. The audience can keep up if just a coat or jacket has been changed: especially when Katherine’s physicality changes with each character. This is a lovely show and there are some great guffaw moments and some with poignancy: it also has the potential to be even better.
