Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life. Directed by David Lampard. Book, music and lyrics by Amity Dry. Music by Mark Simeon Ferguson. Popjam Productions. The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre. Until September 27. Bookings: theq.net.au.
Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life might have a complicated title but it's an Australian musical with a simple focus on the lives of four women and issues of motherhood, marriage and modern living.
Bec (Nikki Aitken) and Lily (Susan Ferguson) would appear to be the most settled, Bec with a husband and tribe of small kids, Lily likewise married with children and a family restaurant that's been running for years. Then independent Kate (Amity Dry) finds herself unexpectedly pregnant. Meanwhile Jessie (Rachel McCall) gets the marriage proposal she's been after for five years and proceeds to drive everyone else mad with her wedding plans.
Things fall apart and there are no smooth outcomes for anyone. Aitken's warm and earthy Bec reveals struggles with marriage and child rearing while Ferguson's pragmatic Lily finds herself facing the possibility of being alone. As Kate, Dry brings real poignancy to the struggles of a new mother. McCall's somewhat self-obsessed Jessie works out her wedding (which unfortunately we do not get to see) with the precision of a general and an obsession with wedding magazines. Months later she is doing the same kind of thing to her husband with the home renovations and it is clear that she expects child rearing will work this way too. Her friends look on with wry pity at this expectation.
There's much humour in all of this but also a good-hearted realism about the physical realities of birth and babies and sexuality that the cast (and the audience) clearly relishes. The set with its deceptively bright domestic house elements works a treat as windows, table and a central door are revolved by the cast to form a range of settings and images that reflect the lives of the women.
Some may find the music a trifle relentless but the singing is good and the numbers are put across with style and feeling.
Mother, Wife and the Complicated Life lives up to its title. These women are right up against many of the practical problems of modern relationships and parenting. It's at the Q for a two-week season and certainly deserves to find an audience who will appreciate its frankness, energy and fun.
