Mother on the Edge
“I tried going to one of those mums’ groups but it was full of mums. “
Mia
Mia (Sophie Melville) has a five month old baby still breastfeeding and getting teeth, an eleven year old son who is in trouble at school and a husband who works long hours. To top this when she politely asks a man on the tube to turn down loud music, she is roundly abused and threatened. And at home a neighbour upstairs plays deafening music at 2am. These circumstances understandably all contribute to Mia’s low mood and maybe she has post natal depression.
Sophie Melville is an experienced actor in portraying young women unhinged by circumstance but she has been given a doll as a baby that doesn’t move or convince. There is good sound of the baby crying from Christopher Shutt but Mia’s constant jigging to calm the baby is surprisingly without variety and ineffective as well as distracting for the audience.
Her husband Joe (Bryan Dick) is in IT but working for the police in chat rooms trying to uncover information about the mutilated bodies found in the Thames. The police are hoping that the perpetrator or perpetrators will disclose what they have been doing online. Joe’s long hours at work and into the night mean that he cannot help Mia with the baby Isla.
Mia is summoned to school where her son Alfie (Callum Knowelden) has bitten a school governor’s son Arlo, and is treated less than fairly by the headmistress. She meets a supply teacher Ana (Laura Whitmore) who is looking after Alfie’s class while the regular teacher is off with stress. At first Ana defends the school’s actions but she also listens to what led up to Alfie’s bite of another boy.
It seems that the boys were taking it in turn to look after the class gerbil and while Alfie was holding it, the gerbil died. Gerbils have a very short life expectancy. Arlo and the other boys are calling Alfie “gerbil killer”. So now Mia has two biters in the family, her baby and Alfie, but, spoiler alert, wait there may be more!
Ana talks about Alfie and is enthusiastic about his artistic ability and shows Mia his art work and offers to set up extra art classes to develop his talent. Alfie spends much of his time behind a facial horror mask he has made.
Something rather curious happens when Ana offers to feed Isla. Mia explains that she isn’t bottle fed except we know she must be as Mia talked about the breast pump to express milk for her. Ana explains that she is offering to breast feed the baby herself and says that her aunts and grandmother all took turns in wet nursing. We start to feel that Ana’s interest in the family is over and above normal professional behaviour.
John Donnelly’s script has plenty of witty rejoinders, mostly from Mia, and plenty of ideas that could be developed were there not so many of them. A friendship develops between Mia and Ana and they end up on an evening out in the luxury house of a rich man, Victor (Leander Deeny) whose nervous twitching body language is decidedly odd, even when faced with the prospect of a sexual adventure with two beautiful blonde women.
There is a tonal switch between the first act and the second as the typically twenty first century scene throws back to the issues of the 1800s. The second half inspired my companion to praise the play with its vein of horror and the black arts and it is certainly an unusual juxtaposition of themes.
Tom Piper’s mind blowing set shifts and drops with strong lighting and sound effects. To the edge is scaffolding dividing and maybe protecting the audience from what is occurring onstage.
Credit must be given to Hampstead Theatre for mixing up the themes of its productions and attracting a strong cast and the brilliant director Blanche McIntyre to mount them.
Production Notes
Apex Predator
Written by John Donnelly
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Cast
Starring:
Bryan Dick
Laura Whitmore
Leander Deeny
Sophie Melville
Callum Knowelden
Lorcan Reilly
Creatives
Director: Blanche McIntyre
Designer: Tom Piper
Lighting Designer: Jack Knowles
Sound Designer: Christopher Shutt
Movement Director: Ingrid Mackinnon
Information
Running Time: One hour 40 minutes including an interval
Booking to 26th April 2025
Theatre:
Hampstead Theatre
Eton Avenue
Swiss Cottage
Tube: Swiss Cottage
Reviewed
by Lizzie Loveridge at
Hampstead Theatre
on 31st March 2025