This is Motherhood, laid bare.

The artist formerly known as Liz Skitch, now known to all as ‘mother of two’, has teamed up with trail- blazing theater maker Maude Davey, to create a ground-breaking one-woman show exploring the changes and surprises that one encounters on entering Motherhood. MOTHERMORPHOSIS premiered at La Mama in 2018, played to sold out houses and received critical acclaim.

Sporting an oversized fish head, nursing giant pumpkins and flower arranging whilst lecturing on Doctor Spock, Skitch revels in the art of juxtaposition. With each hilariously absurd vignette, MOTHERMORPHOSIS explores the physical and emotional changes that mothers encounter and how we cope … or how we don’t cope.

MOTHERMORPHOSIS is designed to celebrate motherhood in all its beauty and ugliness. Through the voices of the mothers who have contributed to the production, it shares a wide variety of lived experiences from natural births to life saving c-sections, from healthy babies to sick ones and from the joy of life to the heartache of loss.

And yes there IS a live chicken in the show, fresh vegemite sandwiches, participatory hypno-birthing, full nudity and piping hot pumpkin soup.

This is Motherhood, laid bare.

Venue Format
Theatre, Black Box Venue
Technical Rating
C
Touring Party
2
Considerations

Contains adult content, including full nudity. Live chicken to be sourced at each venue.

Creating brilliant new comedies.

Working in Brisbane and Melbourne; touring nationally and internationally, debase has been producing new shows since 1998.

We are committed to telling Australian stories and challenging our audiences to question stereotypes, history and identity. Our body of work includes The Longest Minute (exploring the intersection of gender, race and sport), Chasing the Lollyman (Mark Sheppard’s exploration of urban Indigenous identity), The Clown from Snowy River (the entire history of Australia told by clowns), Spoilt (an examination of contemporary self-obsession) and Fly-In Fly-Out (a young person’s perspective on the mining boom).

In 2019, debase was awarded the Gold Matilda at the Queensland Theatre Awards for outstanding contribution to theatre in Queensland.

Company Website
debase.com.au

Unique Selling Point

  • Glorious audience interaction: Liz makes vegemite sandwiches and whips up a batch of pumpkin soup for the audience
  • There IS a live chook on stage, in a cot - the whole show!
  • Blokes will not feel left out! There is plenty of comic relief for parents of all genders
  • One reviewer said this about the show: ‘I know what you are thinking, “ANOTHER comedy piece on the struggles of Motherhood’, but this is very different. Mothermorphosis not only gives us the funny and ridiculous to motherhood but at the same time keeps intact the achingly human realisation’ – David Gardette, Theatre People ****

Marketing Materials

  • high quality flyer and poster images
  • high quality publicity images
  • high quality production images
  • high quality rehearsal shots
  • 1 min trailer
  • 3 min trailer
  • FB marketing campaign (including fun and interactive ‘chook auditions’ clips and images)
  • Media releases and marketing copy for a variety of media
  • Artist/ Mum Q & A- useful content (written)

Community Engagement

For venues that are interested in a residency combined with the show, Skitch can connect with local creative mums through recording interviews about motherhood/ capturing the community's voice then run a 'share your story' theatre making workshop (incorporating recordings). As part of the residency Skitch can also provide an intimate preview reading of Mothermorphosis followed by Q & A or a show and tell of works developed in the workshop followed by tea and treats. Skitch conducted a weekend residency testing this model at Stratford Courthouse Theatre in the lead up to the premier of Mothermorphosis. It was well attended, led to a deeper engagement with the show and has gone on to inspire other creative mums to share their stories. NB- some of the voices of the mothers from Stratford have been incorporated into the soundscape for Mothermorphosis.