Be My Baby
Commissioned by Soho Theatre Company (1998)
Published by Nick Hern Books
“The thing is, I can feel it moving. I can feel it moving and I’m scared, y'see? I’m scared I’m going to love it.”
It’s 1964 but the sixties aren’t swinging for Mary Adams: 19-years-old, unmarried and pregnant. She is sent in secrecy and shame to St. Saviours, a Church of England mother-and-baby home run by a formidable Matron.
Mary is set to work in the laundry and shares a room with the tough-talking Queenie. The girls in the home bond over a love of girl-group records, which entertain, console and inspire as the birth of their babies approaches. When Mary finds she is expected to give up her child for adoption, she begins a desperate fight.
Be My Baby, Leeds Playhouse in May 2019. Director Jacqui Honess-Martin.
“Poignant, powerful and still relevant.”
The Observer *****
Cast: 6f
Facts & Figures
Widely studied for GCSE & A Level.
First production in Soho Theatre’s Four Plays: Four Weeks season directed by Abigail Morris.
Subsequent productions include Leeds Playhouse, Derby Theatre, New Vic Theatre, Salisbury Playhouse and The Dukes, Lancaster. UK tours Soho Theatre (2002) and Anton Benson Productions (2016)
Features in 100 Great Plays for Women by Lucy Kerbel.
Photo credits from Leeds Playhouse (Antony Robling) and New Vic Theatre (Robert Day).
Be My Baby: Derby Live
Reviews
Be My Baby
“Amanda Whittington, who was the first writer to give this subject dramatic treatment, is an undiscussed yet ubiquitous sort of writer. There's rarely a point at which a regional playhouse isn't performing one of her plays, and the text of this one has quietly slipped on to many GCSE reading lists.”
“Has the heartstring-tugging potency of a pop classic.”
“If this play were a person, you’d want to hold it and hug it.”
