Stephanie Ware is, as she tells us at the top of her show Whoa Mama!, currently playing at the Hen & Chickens as part of Camden Fringe, ‘an actor’.
So, under Peta Luly’s direction, Ware speeds through several genres in which she can explore the biological clock and what it means to be a woman who is ‘not childless, but childfree’.
This is, on the surface, a piece of comedy in which we, the audience, are invited to collude or collaborate, from the moment in which the Earth is brought into the world.
Greek tragedy, period drama, being a man, the Vagina Monologues, courtroom drama, and the TED talk are all somewhat fertile ground for Ware’s imagination.
Whether becoming a mother is a matter of ‘choice or chance’ is anyone’s guess, and Whoa Mama! chooses to riff on expectations (cultural, practical or environmental) that plague women.
Ware is a lively performer, good as both improviser and imaginative theatre maker. Her show requires a lot of interaction and on the night I saw the show it was well attended with people keen to join in.
As a woman who has passed those biological ‘sands of time’ I recognised the idea that one might regret that no mini-me will follow. To be ‘never mother or ancestor’, to paraphrase Ware.
There are funny moments within Whoa Mama!, and a lot of clever props and ideas. A puppet, a scene-stealing sock, and a luscious pair of lips make an appearance alongside Mother Earth herself.
There is a coherent theme going on with a sense of the absurd, and even if every idea doesn’t quite land, and if the structure could be just a little bit tighter, this is a very good show.
Ware brings a definite heart to a subject that begins with jokes and ends with a joyous celebration of the female experience.
I suspect it stands or falls not on its tech (lighting and sound are both excellent), but on the connection between theatre-maker and theatre-consumer.
I’m giving this one ****.
https://camdenfringe.com/events/whoa-mama/ (to 10 Aug)