Sylvie (Anita Canala) uncompromisingly wanted a baby, Janice ( Heather Riley)  had  five too many, and Tiffany( Laura Antoniazzi ) didn’t want one at all.  Lily (Lesley Reed ) had no relationship with her son and Mr Causeway (Brian Godfrey) employer of the women, “mother henned” all four  of his “girls” in  his on-line sex toy call centre, Aphrodite.

 

 Playwright Anna Longaretti reveals that the play is  “completely personal “  and we see as the plot unfolds her  exploration of motherhood, the competition between the women and the  desperation they each experience . In between taking calls for “titivators and rotating pearl g-strings” the women one- by- one reveal their attitudes to  motherhood.

 

Director Warren McKenzie has  put together a competent show, but is let down to a certain extent by the  logistics of the of the Marion Cultural Centre  stage and also the overall  set design.    

 

The stage is inordinately long and narrow, which does not assist the layout of  the design. The four women’s desks lined up across front, down stage, inhibit to a significant degree the options for  stage movement, obliging the blocking  to be mostly lateral.  The incidental music worked well, as did the lighting in the passage of time sequences.  

 

Lesley made the most of her tragi-comic role as Lily  the woman in a loveless marriage with a son who rejected her and Laura was the sexy single girl Tiffany  scorning the loss of independence  due to pregnancy. Heather made us  quite aware that her married life was not what  every woman hoped it would be, and Anita played the sharpish Sylvie  well although her French accent  was not always consistent.The experienced Brian Godfrey gave a performance of the boss Mr Causeway in a rather Benny Hill-ish style, but nonethelesss showed his love for  Lily.