Baby Talk

Laura Kressly speaks to the people behind four different Fringe shows presenting pregnancy and childbirth honestly while making great theatre

Though the number of women without children is rising, most will still experience pregnancy. Yet, despite how common pregnancy and childbirth are, these ‘women’s issues’ remain taboo. This year, several productions on pregnancy and childbirth attempt to remove this stigma.

Nine Months theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, 9:20pm – 10:05pm, 12–17 Aug, £10

In these fraught times, laughter is important and Nine Months uses humour to consider changing attitudes towards women in Ireland. “It touches on issues that relate to pregnancy and childcare over the last 50 years. There are dark elements alongside comedy, with plenty of audience participation. The power of the piece is the juxtaposition of the bleak and the dark with absurd realities of childcare and parenting,” Imelda Reynolds and Frances Moylan say. “We feel it is important to bring these issues to the Edinburgh stage so that they can be discussed and shared.”

Play Before Birth

Greenside @ Infirmary Street, times vary, 12–24 Aug, not 18, £8

Play Before Birth looks at young motherhood, with an added dimension of climate change. “We begin with Klara, 21 and pregnant. An uninvited guest turns up at her baby shower. Moira is an environmental activist and the paternal aunt of Klara’s baby. The play explores what it’s like to be a young mother in the era of Donald Trump,” Molly Farley and Rohan Gotobed explain. Gotobed adds, “we need to be more open in telling stories about these subjects. Theatre is an incredible platform for empathy.”

Birth

Pleasance Dome, 2:50pm – 3:50pm, 31 Jul–26 Aug, not 13, 22, £6–£12

A Womb of One’s Own deals with an emotive topic – abortion. “For some reason, we still want to think of women’s bodies as shrouded in mystery, and that can be really damaging,” says actor-writer Claire Rammelkamp. Based on her own experience, she tells the story of Babygirl who, at 18, discovers she’s pregnant. “I had no idea what to do or who to call when I first found out. I had a great support network, but the play explores what the process of having an abortion would be like without that.”

Pleasance Courtyard, 12pm – 1:15pm, 1–25 Aug, not 12, £9–£14

“It’s about what it means to lose and create a new life. In the UK, an estimated one in four pregnancies end in loss. What the parents go through is rarely discussed,” says Guillaume Pige, Theatre Re’s Artistic Director. He wonders: “Is it because it is a non-issue to the rest of society? Or fear – prospective parents don’t want to consider they may lose the child. Because when miscarriages happen, it is like losing a dream. Or is our relationship to death at stake?”