Birmingham-based RoguePlay Theatre, “one of the UK’s leading aerial and physical theatre companies”, is to take a show to London for the first time as part of the capital’s Vault Festival 2023.
Mother Tree is a “75-minute, fast-paced show about women and the struggles, guilt and difficult maternal mental health patterns that motherhood comes with”.
RoguePlay’s artistic director Kim Wildborne has written and performs the show which combines theatre, aerial silk, music and spoken word. She performed at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games and produces the annual TILT Festival, said to be the largest aerial and physical theatre festival of its kind outside London.
Mother Tree is based on Wildborne’s personal journey through motherhood. She said, “during my sleepless nights I kept a diary, a series of poetic scribblings. The show came from those very personal writings.
“Post-natal depression is not spoken about. Women get frightened to say anything in case it gets taken the wrong way and nobody tells you how hard it will be until it happens. For all these reasons I wrote this show. But it isn’t just about all the difficult stuff. It counterbalances that with the beauty of having children and the amazing life experiences it brings.”
Mother Tree will receive its London debut on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 February at the Cavern, the Vaults, Leake Street, London. It will then go on a national tour.