Be My Baby
Writer
Amanda Whittington
Director
Blythe Stewart
Location
The Linbury Studio Theatre
Dates
Friday 4 June at 2pm
Friday 4 June at 7:30pm
(live-streamed)
Saturday 5 June at 2pm
Saturday 5 June at 7:30pm
About the show
“What else can you offer your child, Mary? A Christian home? Financial security? A legitimate name?”
The swinging sixties haven’t quite reached St Saviour’s mother and baby home. Run by the Church of England, the unwed mothers are hidden away from the neighbours and cloaked in shame.
They’re told this is what’s best. They have lives to go back to. Loving families. Boyfriends who are definitely going to marry them as soon as they can. And the children will be taken well care of. They’ve been promised that. But the young women aren’t so sure anymore...
Amanda Whittington was born in Nottingham in 1968. After leaving school, she worked as a freelance journalist for a variety of publications and was a columnist for the Nottingham Evening Post.
Her stage plays include Satin ‘n’ Steel (Nottingham Playhouse/Bolton Octagon), Ladies’ Day (Hull Truck), Bollywood Jane (Leicester Haymarket), The Wills’s Girls (Show of Strength/BBC Radio Four), Player’s Angels, Last Stop Louisa’s and The Boy on the Hill (New Perspectives). She has also written three youth theatre plays and a stage adaptation of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
Be My Baby was commissioned by Soho Theatre and has been produced extensively in the UK and abroad.
As a freelance director, Blythe has worked for a range of companies including the National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, Soho Theatre, HighTide Festival, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Oxford School of Drama.
Twice she’s been nominated Best Director for Off-West End Awards. In 2016 she was the Hospital Club Foundation's Emerging Creative for Theatre and Performance.
Recent directing credits include: Wonder Winterland by Sami Ibrahim (Soho Theatre), Work Bitch by Jessica Siân (VAULT), Skin A Cat by Isley Lynn (UK tour), Finding Fassbender by Lydia Larson (Pleasance Edinburgh) and Conditionally by Danusia Samal (Soho Theatre).
Blythe studied directing at East 15 and the National Academy of Dramatic Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, Russia.
Strong language, themes of an adult nature and scenes of a distressing nature.
If you would like further information, please contact the box office.
Photos: Alex Brenner
Creative Team
Director
Blythe Stewart
Assistant Director
Belle Bao
Designer
Amanda Mascarenhas
Movement Coach
Adi Gortler
Voice Coach
Stevie Rickard
Cast
Mary
Zoë Armer
Matron
Matilda Bailes
Queenie
Florence Guy
Mrs. Adams
Lucy Havard
Norma
Ciana Howlin
Dolores
Lilly Walker
Production Team
Production Manager
Tiago Stricker Fontes
Stage Manager on the Book
Charli Stephens-King
Technical Stage Manager & Lighting Designer
Daisy Simmons
Technical Stage Manager & Sound Designer
Callum Watson
Production Sound Engineer
Vadim Wilkie
Costume Supervisor
Georgia Rose
Costume Assistant
Izzy Ribbeck
Photos: SRTaylor Photography