Kudos for 'Mother Load'

With the month of May signifying the annual holiday of Mother's Day, there couldn't be a better time to officially kick off the one-woman play MOTHER LOAD, written and preformed by Amy Wilson and directed by Julie Kramer.  Billed as a performance audiences will enjoy whether they are mothers or just have one, Amy Wilson's personal story of her daily role as a mother offers laughs, tears and most importantly a breath of fresh air that brings motherhood back to what ultimately matters most. 

MOTHER LOAD opens up with Wilson narrating about the juxtaposition of her drib-drab yet competitive "life as a mother" in Manhattan as she slowly begins her unglamorous daily process of cleaning up a living room that has lost any semblance of formality replaced with scattered toys, clothes and the like.  Wilson is immediately engaging as she naturally brings a friendly presence to the stage along with an element of realism.  Already a mother of two children with a third on the way, Wilson talks to the audience about her "complicated" mundane life as she casually folds baby clothes and picks up toys.  While she just wants to focus on being a good mother to her children, she admits that she's constantly pulled in different directions by other mothers who seem to have lost the idea of motherhood.  In Manhattan, no longer is it good enough to provide sons or daughters with houses full of love and support as they marvelously grow up before parents' eyes.  Instead, Wilson explains that it's a cutthroat battle between the mothers to see whose child can be involved in the most activities and whose child can receive the most proper grooming – from reading readiness professionals to private pre-school search consultants – all in the name to succeed in future endeavors.  As Wilson sifts through all the nonsense a Manhattan mother can go through in this day and age, she adds a practicality to her narration that luckily shows there are still level-headed families in existence who understand that childhood is intended to be just that – childhood.   

MOTHER LOAD is a good comment on today's society in how it views both pregnancy and motherhood.   Wilson starts out describing how wonderfully naive she was when she first found out she was pregnant.  She had no doubt that she'd have a "fit" pregnancy where she would lovingly embrace the natural changes her body would experience.  The idea wasn't that far fetched given the several magazines lining stands devoted to just this topic.  But despite all the pre-natal yoga classes and advice columns she read, nothing prepared her for the less glamorous parts of pregnancy – the pain, the endless "spread-eagle" tests and yes, even the gas.  The personal surprises of pregnancy didn't end there either, Wilson explains.  She still had to deal with other people contributing their two cents at any given moment.  In typical Wilson fashion, she uses spot-on comparisons to make the audience laugh and cringe at the same time.  She says being pregnant is like being the prize heifer at the state fair because everyone stares and walks around her, as if to size her up and guess her weight.  Try finding that in a pregnancy magazine…

As Wilson continues to straighten up the living room, she tells the audience that if the beauty of pregnancy was misleading, actual motherhood itself offers even more room for interpretation.  What Wilson eloquently hits with this point is the thousands of directions new mothers are pulled into, all in an effort to provide the best care for their child.  Breast feed or bottle feed?  Let the baby cry or attend to his or her every need? Make every interaction with the baby a learning experience or just enjoy it for the moment?  These over-arching themes wonderfully compliment her various everyday "mom" antidotes she shares with the audience.  Wilson's dialogue makes audience members laugh while nodding in complete agreement of understanding (i.e., I'll have three children and eight strollers!) to see the bigger picture.  The never ending race to do the most, protect the most and prepare the most is the result of an often misguided and possibly even inadvertent competition set in place by the mothers themselves.  At one point, Wilson feels inadequate for only involving her second child in two activities during the week after another mother nonchalantly reels off a CEO-like schedule of activities for her child.  It is this situation that Wilson consistently runs into which forces her to question her capabilities as a mother.  It's not until she steps away from the situation that she understands her not even two year-old son would never care nor even realize that he was only in a couple activities when he could have been involved in ten. 

Wilson cracks the idea that a "supermom" needs to be someone who is consistently five steps ahead of their child's pace.  While there is nothing wrong with preparing a child for the future, there is something amiss about applying to several different pre-schools to ensure the child gets into a good kindergarten – a part of MOTHER LOAD that serves as a main storyline.  Of course, all parents want the best for their children, but Wilson begs the question of when is it time to draw the line?  When is it okay for a kid to just be a kid and a mom just to be a mom by loving her child in the most genuine, altruistic way without worrying about what the latest parenting trend she may not be following?  This is the point Wilson hammers home and it is as refreshing as a cold shower on a warm summer day.  Wilson causes parents, grandparents and parents-to-be alike to stop and appreciate the moment because if they don't, the beauty and innocence of childhood will be lost before parents ever had a chance to enjoy it. 

With all the pitfalls parenting and pregnancy may bring, Wilson never denies how ultimately wonderful the whole experience is, even from her somewhat cynical, self doubting point-of-view.  Her performance provides humor, relatable experience for most, and a clever way to bring the story of motherhood back to the basics rather than a story about the latest trend.  In a moment of liberation, Wilson messes up the room she spent the entire performance cleaning up and leaves the audience with a poignant message to wrap things up with that makes the audience want to stand up on their feet and say thank you:

"As soon as I became a mother, I was no longer in control. What I am in control of, is letting go of feeling bad about it…When my kids dump out seven thousand plastic animals by 8 am tomorrow, I am going to try to leave them. And I'll give all three of them cookies an hour after breakfast, and I'll roll around on the floor and wrestle with them, and they won't have a deep learning experience for, like, half an hour. And maybe some would say that makes me a bad mother. But I know the truth. Someday very soon, my house will be immaculate. No toys in sight. And I'll have time to finish a cup of coffee, and read the paper, and I will stop, look around, and realize that my children are all grown up. And I hope, when that happens, I can say - those were the happiest days of my life."  

Bravo!

MOTHER LOAD runs April 21-June 16, with performances Tuesday–Saturday at 8 p.m. and a "Moms' Matinee" Wednesdays at 11 a.m at the Sage Theater.  For more information on MOTHER LOAD, photos, biographies, video and more, please visit www.motherloadshow.com.

Photos of Amy Wilson by Joan Marcus