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Quick! Someone fly me to the UK because I absolutely, 100% have to see this drama. I’ll admit, when I was first reading about “Mine,” I went into defensive gear. The adoptive family is portrayed as the be-all and end-all of what society can offer to a child while the expectant mother is, of course, a drug-addicted prostitute. I wanted to scream, “STEREOTYPING!” But the article addressed the issue almost immediately.
In Teale’s hands, though, what look like stereotypes are used to pose probing questions about the way we live now, and the title is a broad hint that this is as much a play about possession as adoption.
Oh. Okay. I get it now.
And reading more, it just sounds absolutely fascinating. As a further example of how this particular drama is addressing further issues, the juxtaposition of the birth and adoptive mothers should be vastly interesting.
‘There’s a connection, in that they’re both damaged,’ notes Teale, but their lives couldn’t be further apart.
I’m pretty sure that I know quite a few adoptive parents who would never admit to being damaged. Yet, at the same time, I don’t think I know anyone, adoption aside, who hasn’t been damaged by life in some way. Even my most optimistic, well-rounded, super-awesome friends have lived some life stories that make you realize that their optimistic, well-rounded, super-awesome nature is a screaming testimony to the core of their character.
I’m wondering if, as a birth mother, this is actually a play that I could sit through without becoming overwhelmed. If I have trouble watching minor storylines play out, albeit poorly, on television shows, how would I handle a play that is going to focus on the issues at hand. And, yes, while I understand that the birth mother character was purposefully cast as the least common denominator, I wonder still if that would make me uncomfortable as I sat my way through the drama. I wonder, also, if adoptive parents will be left feeling uncomfortable with what sounds like a very greedy, possessive adoptive parent figure. Is greed a true character flaw as one might see drug addiction or are they both circumstantial enough that one should not be insulted by being portrayed with such a vice? I don’t know that answer. I’m writing aloud.
All in all, it sounds vastly interesting. The website itself makes me all the more intrigued. And yet, I won’t be able to cross the pond this weekend just to catch a play. (Or on any of its other dates for that matter.) I hope those that are able to see this are pushed to think a little. That sounds like the general intention of the whole ordeal.
