Jessica Hagan’s chaotic, cartoonish sitcom about Ama, a selfish, manipulative, self-centred woman determined to have a child before she reaches the age of 30, is powered by whatever looks or sounds like a laugh. Very occasionally, it drops in a serious statistic or observation from some social study.
The stage set consists of large, pinkish jigsaw pieces representing a home.
Ama (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) arrives to tell her younger sister Jade (Jahmila Heath) about meeting Brenda, who first got pregnant in year 11 and is again pregnant with the latest of her five children. In contrast, Ama and Jade are childless.
Their mother suddenly calls a family meeting in which she announces she wants their bedrooms for a painting studio and a playroom for the grandchildren. Fortunately, Ama is getting a place and allows Jade and Jade’s partner Skippy to live with her.
She tells her mum that she intends to marry and settle down, to which her mum says, “you can’t marry yourself”. Ama retorts, “you can in America, " which makes the audience laugh.
The slow-moving first half also includes short sketches illustrating her break-up with her boyfriend Dami (Jordan Duvigneau) at a restaurant meal, supposedly to celebrate her birthday, and a visual drunken return to her flat where she rages against the furniture.
The pace speeds up in the second half as Ama realises her work colleagues are having babies. A flashing clock appears above the stage, marking the time left before she is thirty.
She tricks her sister’s partner Skippy into attending a fertility clinic with her, ‘forgetting’ to explain that she is claiming he is her partner. His puzzlement turns to discomfort when he is asked to provide a sperm sample. Skippy subsequently tells her, “I feel objectified” and violated by her.
Things grow more complicated when Jade begins to suspect Skippy is having an affair, and Ama’s former boyfriend reveals he is already a father.
The audience laughs easily, but it is difficult to believe in the characters or anything serious that pops out of the light plot. The exaggerated events and improbable jokes eclipse everything.