Snap
Now touring the kitchens of private homes, community venues and arts festivals
Snap is set in a kitchen at night as an overtired mother struggles to find space for herself. As sleep deprivation loosens her grip on reality and stuck in a domestic loop; she strives to remain the parent that she had hoped to be.
How many questions do you answer in one day? How many animals are there in Peppa Pig? Would it hurt if your eye fell out? And how many sleeps are there until Christmas? This show is a frank, funny and ferocious look at what happens when the little things just don’t come together any more and we begin to snap. It is an intimate show that gives focus to ‘what Mother’s do’ and delves into the joy and struggle of early parenthood.
Snap is comic, visual and physical. It has been co-devised and directed by Sarah Corbett with sound and music by Liz Purnell. It was developed alongside childcare practitioners, parents and support groups and performed to a broad range of audiences. These include theatre festival audiences, carers and parents.
If you would like professional theatre bought to your doorstep and your kitchen or community venue transformed, then get in touch. If you would like to include Snap as part of your theatre festival program as a site-specific piece then get in touch.
As part of the development of this show I have explored the role of the wider community in raising children, and questions around neighbourly responsibility. Snap is always followed by a post show discussion, which acts as an opportunity to further research and open up this conversation. This project has been my way of taking theatre out to those who would not come in to the theatre.
"By giving focus to my kitchen, you have given the work of the stay at home Mum status."
"I want you to freak out. I really want you to go there for us. It’s the solitude that makes it so unbearable. When you are on your own, you lose it and then your children experience it and then you feel guilty."
"I find it liberating when the monsters come out. You are acting out something that is inside everybody in the audience."
"I just thought - that's my house... if you've made a performance it must be happening to everyone. We must be all the same."
"In art & society this is not really talked about, what caring for others and housework is about, what my brain has been used up doing. You are marking it, verbalising it."
The Madonna
This image of me was taken by Ben Dowden as part of the development process of Snap. I was struggling to find archetypal images of Motherhood from my culture that I was able to relate to. It has been included in exhibitions at Hamilton House and Spike Island galleries in Bristol.
R and D photography by Ben Dowden
Production shots by Paul Blakemore
Snap on Tour
Tour dates during 2018 have included:
Thursday 25th January 7.30pm:
Live and Local, Kings Bromley Village Hall, Alrewas Road, Kings Bromley, Staffordshire DE13
7HW
Friday 26th January 7.30pm:
Lincolnshire Rural Touring, Billinghay Community Rooms, Church Lane, Billinghay, Lincolnshire LN4 4HZ
Friday 23rd February 11am:
Salisbury Arts Centre kitchen, Bedwin Street, Salisbury SP1 3UT
Friday 23rd February evening:
Theatre Fest West, private kitchen unreleased location, Salisbury
Saturday 10th March:
Shindig, Fairfield Village Hall, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B61 9LZ
Friday 20 April:
Live and Local, Foxt Village Hall, Foxt, Stoke-on-Trent ST10 2HJ
I was also delighted to work with MotherShip in Birmingham in June 2018 as part of their PLAYGroup project. This is a befriending project for newly arrived mothers and local mothers and their 0-4 year olds. Snap was performed at The Meena Centre, home of Help Refugees. This was the unofficial women and children's centre in the Calais jungle until it had to find a new home, now on the edge of Birmingham's jewellery quarter.
Public tour dates during 2017 included:
Hamilton House Community Kitchen, Bristol
The Lyric Theatre, Bridport
The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol
Llandogo Millenium Hall, Monmouthshire
Knowle West Children's Centre, Bristol
Thimblemill Library, Smethwick, Birmingham
Snap was also seen at Barton Hill Healthy Living Centre,
Bannerman Road Children's Centre, Bristol and in many private kitchens.
With thanks to Shanti Sherson, Arts Development Officer at The Barton Hill Healthy Living Centre, and Knowle West and Bannerman Road Children’s Centres, Bristol.
