It is 1964 and nineteen-year-old Mary is unmarried and pregnant. Her mother sends her to St Saviour’s, a Church of England mother-and-baby home where young women are hidden away until their babies are born. Mary shares the home with Queenie, Norma and Dolores, and the girls form friendships while listening to the girl-group records of the period. Behind the music and laughter is a devastating reality: they are expected to surrender their babies for adoption. As Mary grows increasingly attached to her unborn child, she begins to understand what is about to be taken from her.
All Saints Elton Theatre Company presented Amanda Whittington’s Be My Baby from Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th October 2024.
This is a play that deserves gentleness rather than cleverness.
The young women at its centre have been sent away because pregnancy outside marriage was considered a source of shame. They are expected to disappear quietly, give birth and then return to ordinary life as though nothing has happened.
Of course, something has happened.
Reagan Paterson played Mary, with Anji Barrett-Chalk as Queenie, Grace Young as Norma and Charlotte Crowley as Dolores. The four find companionship in one another and escape through the pop music of the early 1960s. Songs associated with groups such as The Ronettes and The Dixie Cups sit against the much harsher circumstances of the home.
The friendship between the girls gives the play warmth, but it never disguises what is happening to them. Mary’s growing love for her baby makes the expectation of adoption increasingly painful.
Written by Amanda Whittington, Be My Baby explores motherhood, friendship, social attitudes and the experiences of unmarried mothers in Britain during the 1960s. Amanda Kenyon appeared as Mrs Adams and Laura Thompson as Matron.
Our October 2024 production brought this moving story to audiences in Bury and gave space to voices which, for many years, society expected to remain quiet.