THEATRE REVIEW: Mother is a Daughter is a Mother
17.11.2022 Pitt Street Theatre, Auckland
One of the things I love about theatre reviewing is seeing the experimentation. I love watching new projects come to life. It reminds us that these intensely polished ASB Waterfront theatre shows didn’t just emerge that way - they started from somewhere.
Mother is a Daughter is a Mother (MDM) is an exercise in experimentation. It takes the theatre space and uses it as a blank canvas for performance art. Exploring what it means to be a mother when you are still a daughter, MDM pushes conceptual performance art to the peak, experimenting with ways to manifest emotion and memory on stage. The two sole actors, Rhiannon Hadlow (who is also the writer) and Isabella Temm, use sound, poetry and movement to grapple with the strangeness of their identities.
The chosen venue of Pitt Street Theatre was actually perfect for the show. There was this ethereal echo with every spoken line, and the sparseness of the stage really drove home the exploration of motherhood in MDM. There was a haunting barrenness on stage, even before anything had begun.
Rhiannon Hadlow’s script shines through in this space, filling the room with spoken word poetry and off-beat lines. The repetition of words and phrases that gain and lose meaning in different contexts was really beautiful. Each word was an echo between mother and daughter, changing infinitely but also remaining the same. There’s a moment where Temm says, “something’s happened” and Hadlow, as the mother, simply replies with maternal stock-phrases. They repeat this interaction over and over, moving back and forth on the stage. It reminds me of the interactions I have with my own mum, these moments of talking past each other when you really just want to be understood.
“The repetition of words and phrases that gain and lose meaning in different contexts was really beautiful. Each word was an echo between mother and daughter, changing infinitely but also remaining the same”
The breaking down of language to become a series of shushing and babies cries was not only striking, but incredibly haunting. I’m a big sucker for linguistic experimentation, emptying words of meaning and seeing what will happen when they are just phonemes. This is particularly interesting to explore in MDM because language changes when you become a mother. Your syntax and semantics change and suddenly phonemes are all you are - your words become cooing and Motherese. Hadlow did a great job of exploring the relationship between language and motherhood in her script.
The audio and lighting were some of my favourite parts of this show. Extremely sharp and perfectly on cue, the technical stage design became this terrifyingly destabilising presence. Sudden spotlights, intrusive ticking clocks and dripping taps - I loved the way sound and lighting were used to add this level of horror and fear. The evolution of daughter into mother became encoded in the lighting and audio.
MDM is a debut piece, and I kept this in mind while in the audience. However, I felt the show really came into its own and solidified its creative voice towards the end - I almost forgot it was a debut at this point. I loved the bold absurdity in these final moments and wished there was more of this throughout. I particularly loved when the re-enacted labour, complete with pained groans, was suddenly interrupted with an elevator-music waiting scene. A baby ‘cooked’ in the microwave while quaint jazz played in the background.
Furthermore, the choreography stepped up in the last section too. Temm and Hadlow dragged each other back and forth, dead weight bodies in each other’s arms. They switched selves and merged roles, and I could see their bodies understand each other. This was when MDM was at its best: A powerful and visceral performance of identities and bodies. I began to really engage with the show in this final section. The choreography became frantic. Two bodies on stage trading places, mirroring each other, embracing and pushing each other away. Is this a metamorphosis or a mitosis? Is this a creation or a destruction of the self? I really wanted the entirety of the show to have that full on, absurd energy I could feel only in the ending. There was something confident and self assured about this part, where in the opening scenes I felt the ideas were not being explored with the strength it needed.
“Temm and Hadlow dragged each other back and forth, dead weight bodies in each other’s arms. They switched selves and merged roles, and I could see their bodies understand each other. This was when MDM was at its best: A powerful and visceral performance of identities and bodies”
The ending of MDM also showcased the strength of Temm and Hadlow’s performance. I could feel the connection between them on stage and their interactions became tender and powerful. There were some moments were I felt the lines were delivered too performatively to feel natural, but overall, they did a really great job of manifesting the identities of mother and daughter through movement and language.
I was particularly struck by the final moments of Temm and Hadlow’s performance, holding each other and pulling back at the same time. There was a love and tension between their bodies that was really beautiful. I also loved the moment in the ‘club’, where both Temm and Hadlow yell over the pulsating music that they need each other. This pendulum swing of loving and loathing is such a defining characteristic of the mother-daughter relationship, captured in films such as Ladybird. however, I think MDM took a really interesting and bold step in a different direction. MDM explores the identity and relationship when a daughter becomes a mother, but still remains a daughter. Where, then, do you stand? This is perfectly captured with the stage set up: An array of children’s finger paintings, scooters and books serve as a backdrop. But, in the foreground, there is only a blank canvas. Temm and Hadlow’s interactions move between these spaces: between the space of children, mothers, daughters and the limbo in between all of this. Together, they paint this blank canvas, only them understanding their relation to each other and the world around them.
Mother is a Daughter is a Mother is new and it is experimental. I really respect the guts and the intensity it takes to put on such a conceptually challenging show. It’s hard to try manifest these feelings into a performance art piece, so I want to first congratulate the cast and crew for putting on MDM. At it’s best, this show is tender and striking. And while I believe MDM still needs a bit of work, I am truly excited to see how it will evolve in the future. I think this is an important performance, and creative experimentation needs to be supported by the community.
Definitely go along and check out this experimental, powerful and beautiful piece of performance art.
■
Book your tickets for Mother is a Daughter is a Mother here!
Director: Terry Hooper
Writer: Rhiannon Hadlow
Cast: Isabella Temm & Rhiannon Hadlow
Producer: Zane Wood
Presented by: Lost Property