Go To Your Womb is an hour-long comedy show, performed by mother-daughter duo Tony Nagy (who also wrote and directed) and Adelia Aldrich. It can be found at Venue 53: theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall in the Grand Theatre.
It is a show about parenthood – both the experience of being a parent, and of understanding one’s own parents. While the show is largely comedic, it also breaches serious topics, with discussion about the worries parents have over raising a daughter.
The initial setting for the performance can only be described as delightfully confusing. An assortment of props and costumes are arranged in a seemingly random display around the edges of the stage – including, but not limited to: a camouflage army uniform, a rotary dial phone, and a false hand attached to the end of a plastic stick.
It is a very physically intensive show, with Nagy and Aldrich putting their dance backgrounds to good use. The stand-out moment of Go To Your Womb is, without a doubt, the dance duet Nagy and Aldrich perform. The choreography is beautiful, and the dance captures the fear Nagy has as a mother for her young daughter.
Nagy’s writing is unwaveringly honest, with her reflections about her own childhood, and how she tries to make up for the missteps of her own mother, and discussions about how all parents do the best that they can. Nagy also provides witty commentary about what it is to be a “feminist mother”, with jokes about trying to avoid allowing her daughter to fall into stereotypes of enjoying dolls or liking the colour pink.
Go To Your Womb is a refreshing, funny performance. It talks about the challenges of motherhood – the desire to keep one’s daughter safe, while also trying to give them space to become their own person. It is a classic fringe show, and one that I would recommend to anyone with a free morning.
