Anna Morris writes and performs the monologue Son of a Bitch which currently occupies the Little space at Southwark Playhouse Borough. It’s a perceptive, pointed, and punchy show about motherhood built around the fallout of one viral TikTok clip.
Marnie says something to her 4-year old son, Charlie, on a long-haul flight. One moment. Seven words. The last one being the c-word. That’s the first thing we hear in Son of a Bitch that ties us to her.
But what happened before, and after?
Directed expertly by Madelaine Moore, each moment pulls us into Marnie’s world as she becomes conditioned and trapped into the expectations of being wife and mother. Little life changes become big ones.
There are problems stacked up around pressure, favouritism, isolation, friendship, idealism (the myth that a woman only achieves purpose as a mother). The flight is the final straw, but as we know, social media is harsh, divisive, and dangerous.
The title of the play, Morris’s first after winning awards for her work as a comedian, refers to the hashing that takes root around the world. A moment. A betrayal, or two.
Both caused gasps of disbelief within the auditorium last night.
Cory Shipp’s set places us on the plane – seat, carpet, lights along the strip. Ellie Isherwood’s sound allows ambient sound to place us in the various locations. But it is Morris’s frankness and directness that draws us in, exploring whether you can/must unconditionally love your child.
Husband Jake is sharply and comprehensively drawn, and underlines the reality that mums often get a worse deal than dads, even from other mums who should understand. Nothing worse than a mumsnet thread or an anonymous phone-in.
I won’t spoil the nuances of Son of a Bitch. It left me thinking about lots of things around being a woman, and what society dictates and expects for us.
I remember at 15 planning for university and career, being told I’d want a baby when I met the right person. And at 21, in a job interview, being told I’d leave soon to have a baby.
I am not a mother three decades later.
Anna Morris’s Marnie is a woman we all recognise. Some of us may have been her at one point or another, but without the viral engagement. She is real. This is a story about seeing just a bit of what we think is real, and amplifying it into something else.
Try and see this. It was a hit at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, and deserves to find a London audience. It’s funny, frank, and fearless.
Son of a Bitch continues at Southwark Playhouse Borough until 15 Mar 2025 with tickets here.
4 stars
Image credit: Steve Gregson