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Oakeley's House House Play 2011 - 'Be My Baby'

The eleventh and final play in this year’s Drama House Festival was most definitely worth the wait; Amanda Whittington's ‘Be My Baby’ performed beautifully by Oakeley’s House. The play, set in 1964, centres around Mary (Natalie Heritage) who is pregnant and on a poignant journey as she learns to cope with her situation and fights a losing battle to retain her teenage illusions about marrying and keeping the baby. Despite being cut off from their families and daily battles with a no-nonsense matron (Emily Young), Mary and her new found friends at the home shine with youthful spirit. This beautifully touching and funny piece, defined by the music of the day, movingly transports us back to the dawn of the sexual revolution.

There wasn’t a weak performance in this play. Natalie Heritage had the audience transfixed with her utterly believable role as Mary, and was supported magnificently by Milla Jupp. Anna John and Georgia Young, both new to the Clifton House Play scene, stepped up to their brilliantly cast roles seamlessly. There were also faultless performances from Emily Young as the strict matron, and Pippa Robinson as the stern Mrs Adams, who really stayed true to their characters throughout. Though only a small cast, the girls all interacted brilliantly and the credit of the smooth running of the piece must go to the professionalism of the actresses.

A very interesting addition to this play was the music. Katya and Dasha remained on stage for the entire performance and played the piano and guitar during the scene changes which added another dimension. The singing suited the play and set the atmosphere perfectly. The opening of this extremely well directed play (by Rosie Keefe) particularly deserves a mention, as it set the tone for the whole performance. The three friends of Mary began in darkness with dimly lit candles, reciting a prayer together, drawing everybody’s attention and beginning brilliantly.

The play was also not without its humour. The naivety of the girls learning about being pregnant was portrayed expertly, especially by Georgia Young, who had the audience in giggles. The stage layout was simple yet effective with an upper stage providing a clearly separate room and extra space. It may have been nice if, for example, the pen and paper didn’t have to be mimed, however the lack of props and scene changes meant that the play could flow smoothly, with fewer interruptions, and the absence of technical sound additions kept the A Capella singing and music extracts on stage pure.

This play had everything ... it made people laugh, cry, hum along, and not want it to finish. It was the touching message delivered by the extremely high quality acting of the six actresses involved which made this play memorable. This was thoroughly enjoyable play and a definite contender for a number of awards, huge well done!

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This year’s Drama Festival Week concluded with this unique and professional production of ‘Be My Baby’. It was a beautiful representation of the emotional and physical struggles endured by the young women of the 1960s. Set in the North of England, clearly indicated by some convincing accents, especially by Georgia Young in the Third Form, this production clearly set the scene and atmosphere of the St. Saviour’s Hospital, run by the Church of England.

There was a unique musical aspect in between each scene which succeeded in drawing the attention away from the scene changes and continued the mood of the play throughout. The two girls playing the guitar and piano, Katya and Dasha, prolonged the atmosphere of the scene and made this an altogether more enjoyable play to watch, with a range of aspects present to depict the developing plot. The musical feature in the play was continued by the cast themselves singing some of ‘The Ronettes’ most well known works, each cast member who sang had a sweet and lyrical singing voice joining together to perform some well-tuned A Capella scattered throughout, from the two songs ‘Chapel of Love’ and, of course, ‘Be My Baby’.

It was evident that Rosie Keefe in the Upper Sixth had made a wise decision not to perform herself which enabled her to achieve good results from her careful direction of this small cast and her efforts deserve great credit. The bonds of friendship were clearly strengthened through the rehearsal process of this play and this assisted in the characterisation of the individual characters’ relationships within the small cast of six. The cast were taken from a wide range of year groups, with one Third Former, Georgia Young, her sister Emily, Anna John, Milla Jupp and Pippa Robinson from the Lower Sixth, along with Natalie Heritage a very experienced Upper Sixth actress in the lead as Mary.

The members of the cast who were pregnant, Mary, Delores, Queenie and Norma showed that much research must have been done into how you should act during various stages of pregnancy. Natalie for example, exhibited obvious signs of how uncomfortable she was at such an advanced stage of pregnancy at the beginning of the play when she was seven months pregnant and coped well with the scene where she was having contractions later on. The emotional pain also of having your child taken away from you and the subsequent confusion she felt was wonderfully portrayed by Anna John when her character, Norma, had to come to terms with the fact that she had no legal rights to contact her child or even call it her own, as empathetically and convincingly explained to her by the Matron, Emily Young. There were top class performances all round, with some really excellent projection of lines from Milla Jupp and Pippa Robinson, who, as always, gave us some really outstanding acting on her part as Mary’s mother, Mrs. Adams.

I very much enjoyed watching this play and have since reflected on how things have changed in society which in those days was all too worried about the reputation of the girls concerned rather than considering the welfare of all involved. Well done to all involved, it was clearly a team effort and a good production to be involved in.

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