Overview
Synopsis
It’s 1964 and Mary Adams has been brought to St. Saviours mother and baby home by her distressed mother. She is 19 years old, unmarried, and pregnant. Along with the tough-talking Queenie, naive Dolores, and heavily pregnant Norma, the girls work in the laundry and keep each other going. Thanks to Mary’s record player, they bond over a love of 1960 girl groups, which entertain, console and inspire the girls as they come to terms with their advancing pregnancies. When Mary sees the trauma Norma goes through after she is forced to give up her baby for adoption, she begins a desperate fight to keep her child. However, before she can make her escape, nature takes its course and Mary is brought face to face with her newborn daughter sooner than she expected.
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Context
Commissioned by Soho Theatre in 1997, Be My Baby was first performed in 1998 as part of the theatre’s Four Plays: Four Weeks season, and was directed by Abigail Morris. The original cast featured Lucy Speed, Eleanor Bron, and Diana Quick. It has subsequently toured the UK twice with Soho Theatre (2002) and Anton Benson Productions (2016). In 2008, the play was recorded as a drama-documentary for BBC Radio 4, directed by Kate Chapman and Sara Conkey. Be My Baby is featured in Lucy Kerbel’s
to read the context for Be My Baby and to unlock other amazing theatre resources!Plot
The lights rise on a split scene. In the Adams’ home, Mary is sat in her bedroom while her mother packs her things to leave. In St. Saviours, Matron reads her latest case file while the voices of Queenie, Dolores, and Norma are heard in prayer for the latest girl in childbirth.
Arriving at the home, Mrs. Adams gives Mary’s details to Matron. Mary is seven months pregnant and has managed to conceal her pregnancy from her mother until recently. Mrs. Adams wants to keep the shameful secret from
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Character Portrayals
See StageAgent members who have performed roles in Be My Baby.
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Guide Written By:
Alexandra Appleton
Writer, editor and theatre researcher