The Gift Theatre Takes A Haunting Look At New Parenthood
By Melody Udell in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 20, 2013 3:20PM
The Gift Theatre's production of Mine explores harsh realities of post-partum family life.
Mari (Hillary Clemens) and her husband, Peter (Gabriel Franken), were model parents-to-be. They tested the apartment walls for lead, sought out the best midwife, delivered their baby at home in a birthing pool. Whatever they could do to ease their first baby into the world, they did it. And after just a few minutes into this eerie new play, the audience is rooting for this adorably over-prepared couple, so full of love and warmth after meeting their daughter for the first time. So it comes as quite a shock to her endlessly supportive husband — and the audience, too — that Mari wakes up from her first night as a parent convinced the baby at her bedside is not the one she gave birth to mere hours before.
In the world premiere of Mine, playwright Laura Marks explores the ugly, hush-hush reality that can consume new parents — a reality that goes far deeper than sleep deprivation and the hassle of hourly feedings. Marks uses Mari’s overwhelming sense of parental uncertainty to probe post-partum depression from a new mom’s point of view.
After Mari encounters a fellow new mom (Cyd Blakewell) who leaves her further questioning her baby’s true parentage, a nagging sense of self-doubt sets in. Marks’ script takes a strange turn into the supernatural, but it’s so convincingly portrayed that the audience finds themselves with the same prick of self-doubt. It’s impossible that Mari’s baby was switched at birth. Or is it? Mari and the audience are never completely sure, despite how obvious the truth might seem.
This deeply personal, deeply emotional play benefits greatly from an intimate venue. It’s an ideal show for the Gift Theatre and allows the small audience to be drawn into such a private story. Stephen Carmody uses every inch of stage space; his simple yet effective set design invites us into an apartment bedroom that unobtrusively becomes a doctor’s office and city park. The seating inside the theater is a bit cramped, but as the tension builds toward the final horrifying scene, the audience has nearly forgotten about the sparse leg room.
Mine displays a balanced mix of qualities both haunting and sympathetic. There’s no doubt the show deals with troubling subject matter, but it’s also equally fascinating — a horrific case study in psychological uncertainty and mental instability. But perhaps scariest of all are the rarely discussed, unexpected feelings that come along with new parenthood — no matter how prepared you might be.
The show runs through Sunday, Aug. 11. The Gift Theatre, 4802 N. Milwaukee, 773-283-7071 or online.