Stories

Last week I saw the play Stories at the National Theatre with Monica Douglas-Clark.

The bio for the play reads…

‘How do you have a baby when you’re 39 and single? Anna is ready for children. The only problem: she’s recently been dumped. Determined to start a family of her own, Anna sets off on an eye-opening, hilarious and heart-warming journey to have a baby and write her own story.’

The play sees Anna navigating her way through the grief of losing her partner and trying to figure out what to do next as the awareness of heading into her 40s with unsuccessful  natural conception and IVF under her belt which was cleverly scripted and funny at times.  So many layers were explored, some of which I could identify with especially the re-visitation of ex’s (lol I’m sure that I dated a few of those characters portrayed in this play) and the research into using donor sperm with the uncertainty of taking this option.

Pursuing motherhood at all cost is not a path that I can fully identify with especially as I made the choice not to pursue assisted conception, so I was intrigued with the many questions the play brought up for me. Some scenes left me wondering about the desperation of (a women’s need or desire) to belong and to fit in with regards to friends, social groups and status and also about the desperation to create a life which lead me to wonder who thinks or speaks for the unborn child??? As much as I support that we all have a choice that we are allowed to exercise, I did wonder if a child has the right ‘not’ to be born, which was subtly raised. I also wondered who’s right was more important, the right to have a child (but who said we are entitled to this???) or the right not to be born under these circumstances???

Weather it is the disappointment after disappointment of seeing your period, every month, the fact that you cannot make sense of why ‘this man’ does not want children with you or you are struggling to conceive there is one common element to all of this…. we have all struggled and we all have the right to be happy.