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Welcome. This wasn’t planned. But I think it is needed.

Rosa and I are in the middle of a Research and Development project for ‘UNEXPECTED’, our most ambitious play yet and, to be honest, it is quite daunting. We had dreamed about being able to properly enjoy the process and although we now have the opportunity (thank you, ACE!), we are struggling to do just that.

It is always the next thing, and the next, so this little blog will be a way to reflect on what is happening in order to enjoy this process and also give you an insight into the project itself.

Yes, it’s born from quite a selfish reason, but, here we go.

‘UNEXPECTED’ is a play about perinatal depression. We didn’t set out to write a play about this subject. We weren’t even aware of the condition. It just happened. I know how it sounds, but it’s true.

Some not so cheerful statistics for you: more than 2 in 10 women experience perinatal depression whilst pregnant. The biggest killer of pregnant women is suicide, yet, we don’t really talk about it.

When you’re pregnant you are expected to be glowing, excited, happy. But that’s not always the case.  What happens then? What happens if all you can see are happy mothers, glowing Insta posts and excited friends and relatives who don’t know you might be struggling? Society pressures us to become mothers but doesn’t take care of us when something doesn’t go according to the ‘plan’.

Yes, there are quite a few charities that offer perinatal mental health support. However, when myself and our lovely producer Ludwig tried to find partners for the project, we called different services many times (even on the helpline numbers) without any answer. It was a struggle. But we were just a couple of theatre-makers. What if you are actually someone who finally plucks up the courage to seek help and all you hear is this endless beeping? This is definitely NOT a dig at these services. They are doing a very difficult job with basically no funding; they are overstretched and understaffed.

Next Monday and Tuesday we are organizing a free workshop for all women to discuss some of these themes of the play. We want to create this safe space for them to connect and share. From the responses we’ve received so far, we can see how needed it is. We are very lucky to be joined by Dr Parvinder Shergill, who is not only a kick-ass Mental Health NHS doctor, but also a filmmaker, podcaster, actress and an all-round creative!

We want to do this theme justice. We are not pretending that theatre can change the world. However, we have had many conversations with different people about this play and most of them have never heard about the condition. 

Even playing a small part in helping them to recognise this in themselves or people they love is a start, a small start, but a start nonetheless.

x

Rasa