The Mother Act

Actor and radical feminist Sadie Jones never wanted to be a mother. When she has a child with British Shakespearean actor Damian Linnen, her feelings of rage and inadequacy are so overwhelming that she leaves her husband and abandons her 18-month-old daughter, Jude. Turning her back on convention, Sadie frees herself to pursue her career as a controversial actor, playwright, and movie producer. Later, Jude comes into her own as an actor, enduring uncomfortable but sporadic visits with her mother and never understanding why her mother left. Meanwhile, Sadie writes and performs a shocking and successful one-woman play, The Mother Act, about her negative experience of motherhood. When Jude uncovers the script of the play, she is devastated to learn that she is the villain—the locus of her mother’s fury and despair. In her searing debut, Reimer captures the conflicting emotions of women seeking careers, recognition, and identities of their own, goals that so often clash against societal norms. Narrators Beth Hicks (Jude) and Lisa Flanagan (Sadie) give convincing performances of the mother-daughter conflict, eloquently conveying the hurt and emotional damage caused when children are blamed for their parents’ decisions.