Actress and producer Emelia Symington Fedy cocooned herself and her baby in her car during a miserable downpour Friday morning to talk to the Courier.
Her baby started crying mere minutes into the interview, but Symington Fedy remained unfazed.
鈥淗e鈥檚 number two,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I鈥檓 comfortable with him crying.鈥�
Coping with motherhood the first time around was another story.
Symington Fedy had just lost her mother and found herself wandering up Commercial Drive with her newborn feeling isolated, sad and alone while other mothers and babies buzzed around her.
So she gathered other actor-mothers with different parenting styles together and asked them to share their innermost thoughts and experiences. They raised money to pay for childcare and spun their intimate stories into a show, Motherload, which premieres at the Cultch and runs Feb. 3 to 21.
Motherload is meant to be a Mom鈥檚 the Word for a new generation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been exactly 20 years, to the year, of their first show,鈥� Symington Fedy said of the acclaimed and long-running Arts Club production. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for a new one.鈥�
There weren鈥檛 1,500 models of strollers to peruse 20 years ago and no apps alerted parents about their children鈥檚 stage of development.
鈥淎ll of our husbands have this rule that you can鈥檛 ask Dr. Google,鈥� Symington Fedy said. 鈥淵ou go 鈥榗hild,鈥� 鈥榬ash,鈥� 鈥榝ace,鈥� and it says, like, 鈥榙eath.鈥欌��
Symington Fedy, accomplished stage actor Jody-Kay Marklew, comedic actor Juno Rinaldi, film and TV actor Sonja Bennett and another mother who had to drop out because her child has a rare disease, spent a year-and-a-half creating Motherload, while pumping milk and holding babies on their breasts and laps. Courtenay Dobbie, artistic director of Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, directed and choreographed.
Motherload highlights the bittersweet experience of discovering a profound sense of placement, or home, and mothers鈥� struggles to maintain their identity.
鈥淢y truth about being a mom in this piece is that I鈥檓 a much better mom when I鈥檓 working,鈥� Symington Fedy said. 鈥淭o accept that, in this day and age when being so there for your kid is so highly valued, I felt like a bad mother for the first year.鈥�
Marklew is her opposite.
鈥淪he is the quintessential blissed-out stay-at-home mom that you鈥檙e just like f*** you, how can you be so happy and content,鈥� Symington Fedy said.
There are scenes about what a sleep-deprived mom would love to scream at her whiny child, another about sex and motherhood, 鈥渙r how there isn鈥檛 any,鈥� and what it鈥檚 like to realize that your son鈥檚 behavioural problems mirror your own.
The four women refer to their own childhoods, their relationships with their mothers and how they were as daughters.
鈥淎s my first son was being born, my mom died,鈥� Symington Fedy said. 鈥淭he one time in my life when I wanted my mother, and she wasn鈥檛 there, and I had to learn how to parent without her, and how I didn鈥檛 do a very good job in the beginning.鈥�
The production includes actors鈥� home videos and photos, old and new.
鈥淥ur projection designer, Cande [Andrade], he鈥檚 working with all these photos we have of our mothers and so you see us and then you see our mothers on this big 12-by-16 [foot] screen,鈥� Symington Fedy said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen him, playing with the projections, crying. It鈥檚 emotional to see these huge images of family on the stage.鈥�
Symington Fedy says comedic actor Rinaldi shares the tale of her severe post-partum depression in a way that鈥檚 simultaneously hysterical and heartbreaking.
It鈥檚 the hysterical that Symington Fedy hopes will be the takeaway.
鈥淢y main goal in this show is for moms to laugh their asses off,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd to go, 鈥極h these women are saying everything that I was terrified of being. Oh, so if they鈥檙e willing to say this, I鈥檓 not so bad.鈥欌��
She鈥檚 confident Motherload will be worth securing a sitter, washing your hair and donning a spit-up-free shirt.
鈥淵ou only make a few special plays in your life,鈥� said Symington Fedy, who also co-runs Chop Theatre. 鈥淎nd I know this is one of them鈥� I know when we鈥檙e on stage, we鈥檙e going to be savouring every minute, and then we go home to our messy houses and the poop all over the floor.鈥�
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