Review: Baby (Brixton House)
Review by Sam Waite
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Despite countless groups’ work towards a fairer world, the sad truth is that some people are at higher risk of being criminalised, and getting back to life outside of prison can prove a lifelong challenge. Founded on a belief that theatre can change lives, Clean Break continues to work, nearly fifty years later, to keep women in prison and who have experience with the prison system at the forefront of their work. Their newest production, Baby, allows its audience a glimpse into the life of one such woman as it opens at Brixton House, introducing us to the human being behind the case number.
We see Baby as she is now, in the aftermath of something terrible she alludes to having done, and as she was before. In the past, she takes us through her entire life, from childhood as a gifted girl with a troubled homelife, to teenage misadventures as she grew up far too fast, to a lengthy sentence and an unexpected birth. Alone on stage, Baby is pleading with us to understand her, to see her, and to recognise that she is working towards a better life, even as the systems built to help her continue to hold her firmly in place.
Playing out on Khadija Raza’s pastel yellow set, the clinical barrenness and hanging curtains suggests from the outset that the present scenes are set in a hospital ward. Immediately a sense of intrigue is added, as we wonder how Baby came to be there. As is so often the case away from the West End, these curtains and a trio of chairs can create a whole world, and the matching colours across Raza’s deceptively simple design allow the audience to project the full scope of one woman’s life across their blank canvas. Coupled with Raza’s costumes, everyday wear that lets Baby come across authentically as a child, teenager, and eventually an adult, her world comes to life before our eyes and in our minds.
Adding to this strong aesthetic is the show’s lighting, designed by Bethany Gupwell. With lights overhead flickering in moments of distress and subtle shifts of colour palate across Baby’s stories, Gupwell achieves a great deal of atmosphere without overwhelming the one-woman structure of the play. Likewise, Elena Peña’s sound design is subtle and delicate, an accompaniment rather than an imposing presence, then becomes more dominating when called for, when the character’s circumstances become more severe.
Perhaps the main draw of the production, and its central feature, is Pearl Mackie in the role of Baby – and of everyone else in her life. Baby is a character who gives away so much of herself freely but keeps a surprising amount locked away, sometimes even from herself, and Mackie navigates this balance astutely from start to finish. With the help of movement director Gabriella Schmidt, Mackie portrays Baby from childish glee to tweenaged disillusionment, from mid-teens misadventures to adult anguish, and her work is exceptional throughout. Tears rarely fall, strong a front as Baby puts on, but we are never in doubt that they could come at any moment.
Milli Bhatia, Baby’s director, makes strong use of Raza's staging, having Mackie move naturally but dynamically across the whole width of the stage. Under Bhatia’s direction it’s impossible to lose track of what is happening, that this young woman is taking us through the full length and the encompassing emotions of her life to date. This is in tandem with Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s text, which transitions smoothly between the past and the present, allowing the two to become increasingly less removed from one another as the story catches up to reality. The topics at play are, of course, distressing, but Bhatti's script proves why these discussions are necessary.
Admittedly, some of what has shaped Baby is left with gaps for the audience to fill in – the specific reason for her time in prison somewhat vague, whether her mother’s substance abuse is truly in the past an overhanging question. With a play whose themes and plot beats are so true to reality, it’s hardly a problem that things aren’t wrapped in a neat enough bow. Also, Bhatti’s sharp, character-driven writing is strong enough to allude effectively to much of what viewers may miss, and perhaps these “gaps” are merely a trust in the audience. While certain conversations can feel like they’ve flown by before there is really time to address them, you could easily argue that this is simply Baby’s writing and direction falling in line with Baby’s life. In much the same way that the character catches herself constantly at the edge of tears, so too does her story linger at the boundary between harsh truth and crippling realisation.
Like its titular heroine, Baby is beautiful and brilliant, if a bit rough around the edges. This is certainly the kind of show which no one will deride, but some will feel doesn’t push deep enough, that it feels sanded down or afraid of scandalising its viewers. However, the power here is undeniable, Pearl Mackie offers up a genuine tour-de-force, and wherever you stand on these issues I would challenge anyone to argue that these conversations are any less than essential.
Baby plays at Brixton House until October 31st
For tickets and information visit https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/baby/
Photos by Helen Murray