There are five of them, gathered in a Charlesbourg house for a shower baby, between stretch mark cream and stroller, pajamas and other special gifts. Between the games, too, there are suspicions of baby shower propriety: guessing the flavor of applesauce, changing the diaper with oven mitts, not saying the word “baby” for fear of losing a pin. Everything is there.
If the first scenes struggle to reveal the issues, they end up emerging around the character of Anne-Marie — Gabrielle Ferron, who, after Delivery in the fall, takes on a substantial second role here.
Repeated miscarriages leave her at her lowest point, while four women around her see the doors of maternity care open to them, starting with her sister who had not asked for it. In a party interspersed in analepsis with sessions with her psychologist, a woman emerges held back to the point of rigidity, her body close to breaking, while a child appears to be the only element missing from her happiness…
And on this point, one might have expected that the text by Catherine Côté (Pineapple upside down), who also directs, explores the multiple knots in which the woman seems to be constrained. Is this the only difficulty of giving birth?
The play favors this angle, a surprising preference in an era of deconstruction of discourses; surprising angle, when the spectacle also offers cause for unease, the child to come or the child to be born circumscribing the totality of the exchanges so well. There is a stifling climate there, which is not limited to performance motherhood alone – Noémie F. Savoie, in a large smiling gap between expert in maternal things and noxious gentleness.
Outstretched hand
To say it this way is, in a certain way, to frame with more precision the aim of the show, which ultimately appears as a hand extended towards those who are destabilized by motherhood, making them question themselves – first and foremost this self-effacing woman, in her delivery restrained and almost painful from Ferron. The balloons scream joy, while the white tulle of the decor, against a background of full and almost mortuary voices, will sometimes give it the air of a columbarium.
However, the characters share moments without overshadowing each other, laughter and dramatic points as well. Five strong actresses form a credible quintet here, in a story woven with twists and turns and revelations, sprinkled with clarifications on pregnancy, postpartumetc.
In this picture of the realities surrounding giving birth, there will be no question of taking a step aside to name its social aspect, the control function that we know about it. Instead, baby shower will make its coherent and felt gesture of offering a welcome to the different experiences linked to motherhood, all valid. The piece, which closes like a balm, will undoubtedly find a strong echo for anyone who has been exposed to these experiences in any way.