There is so much that women face as mothers and wives. After giving birth, women have to navigate a range of things, from not recognizing their own bodies to having a strong sense of being out of control as their breasts fill with milk and dispense it — whether or not the new mothers are even ready to do so at that moment. Women can feel all types of emotions as hormones rage, but in the end, there’s still the responsibility of taking care of your baby and being a wife to your spouse. How do you navigate all of these challenges and present them in a way people can appreciate, laugh at and have fun with, while also showing the uncertainty and trauma motherhood can create? How do you show how much a mother pours into her children, sometimes to the point of leaving nothing for herself?
Here’s how: you create a very unusual play that tells motherhood from the perspective of real mothers. That is exactly what Aya Ogawa has done by writing and directing “Meat Suit, or the Sh**show of Motherhood,” playing at The Irene Diamond Stage at Signature Theatre on W 42nd St., a 2nd Stage production.
The play is based on interviews with mothers and, fittingly, the five actresses who perform in the show are also mothers. This play is full of zany costumes and stories, with women bonding, sharing their struggles with motherhood, and telling stories of giving their all to their children, to only find in some cases that your child grows up and seems to outgrow you. That strong connection you had slowly and gradually gets weaker and weaker.
This play also looks at some of the serious issues that women face as mothers, when they lose a child or when they lose their mothers. It helps audiences examine their relationships with their children and their parents, and reflect on whether they became like their mother as they got older, even though they swore they never would.
This is not the usual fare you come to expect at the theater. The costumes are very over-the-top and provocative. This production is not for a young audience, but it will touch on things that women have experienced and/or thought about, and some things maybe audiences haven’t even considered. While audiences can laugh as the cast members engage with them, inviting them to take part in the production, it also becomes clear that they are witnessing a vehicle women do not often have to speak their minds. This play also leaves you realizing the importance of women supporting their friends and sticking by them when they are going through rough times. Women look out for everyone else, but we also have to remember to look out for ourselves.
This play is so much about women as a whole, rather than specific characters, that the actresses are only referred to as Mother 1, Mother 2, Mother 3, Mother 4, and Mother 5. The five actresses who perform this avant-garde, delightful piece and bare their souls in the mix include Robyn Kerr, Maureen Sebastian, Cindy Cheung, Marina Celander, and Liz Wisan. They are incredibly flexible, fun, and energized in this show. The production features very interesting scenic and costume design by Jian Jung, along with lighting design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew and Christina F. Tang, sound design by Megumi Katayama, choreography by Catherine Galasso and original music and lyrics by Leyna Marika Papach.
This is a play for women to experience with other women, though men seemed to enjoy it as well. For ticket information, visit https://2st.com.