Motherhood with no filter
Teesside theatre maker Rachel Stockdale’s new project puts parents centre stage - and she’s all ears. Sam Wonfor reports
Before a single line is written, before a stage is set or a character imagined, Rachel Stockdale’s latest project is starting with a lot of listening.
The Stockton-born, award-winning theatre-maker is about to begin work on Mother?, a new project that will be shaped not by a script, but by the people it seeks to represent.
Over the coming weeks, she is inviting mothers, parents and primary caregivers into workshops at ARC Stockton - designed to be a safe space where they will be free to talk honestly about their experiences and the realities of being a parent.
“I’m going to walk into the room with a blank page with the first group of participants and see what happens,” she says simply.
It’s a bold approach, even for an artist known for turning lived experience into compelling theatre. But for Rachel, it’s the only way this project can work. Because Mother? isn’t about presenting a version of parenthood, it’s about discovering it.
Rachel is in her mid-thirties, married, and currently child-free. It’s a position that has placed her, as she puts it, in a unique role among friends and family.
“I’m kind of that child-free friend that’s been seeing what everyone around me is going through,” she says. “People tell me things because I’m not going to judge them.”
What she’s heard has revealed something she believes is still difficult to say out loud.
“I’ve had friends that will tell me things… and then they say, ‘oh, but, but I love my child and I wouldn’t change anything for the world’. And I’m like, you don’t have to say that - you can talk about the difficulties as well as the joys. It’s all part of the picture.
“You can say that in this moment you’re struggling, and then this other moment, you’re having the best time you could imagine.”
That contradiction sits at the heart of Mother?. It’s a project that aims to give people permission to speak freely, without needing to tidy up their experiences.
The weekly workshops, which begin on March 31, are designed to remove as many barriers as possible. They’re free to attend, with food provided, babies welcome and childcare available for older children.
“Parenting is full of pressures and contradictions that rarely get discussed,” she says. “They say it takes a village… but sometimes it’s like, ‘ well, where is everyone?’
“These workshops are a chance to share your experiences, help shape a play that reflects real parenting today, and be part of a wider conversation about family life in our society.”
Rachel is actively seeking a wide range of perspectives - from biological and adoptive parents to foster carers and grandparents raising children.
The aim is not to arrive at a single narrative, but to build something more complex and more honest.
“I just thought it would be so good to kind of put all that together… and get as many people as possible to share the realities of what it’s like.”
For Rachel, who lives in Newcastle, the project is not simply observational - it’s also personal. The question at its centre is one she has been circling for years.
“I absolutely have always thought about it,” she says, when asked about having children. “I think I’ve always had a subconscious list of things like well, I have to own a house, I have to have a car - and for a long time I thought I would never get to that place.
“I had a childhood where I was constantly worried because I knew we didn’t have money… and I think I’ve just had a checklist in my head for so long.”
Now, having reached many of those milestones, Rachel - now a full-time creative freelancer following years spent in teaching - admits the question feels more immediate, but no less complicated.
“It’s taken me so long to get here… so do I have them now? Because I’m also a freelancer and I know how precarious that can be.”
That uncertainty - practical, emotional, societal - feeds directly into the project. Mother? is not about arriving at a neat answer, but about opening up the conversation.
And part of that conversation will be what form the end production will take.
Rachel plans to conduct in-depth interviews alongside the workshops, gathering stories from across Teesside. But even as material begins to take shape, control will remain with those who have shared it.
“I’m going to have a read through before I go into rehearsals. And they can tell me what they want in the play, what they don’t want in the play.”
Some of the final script is likely to use verbatim text while other elements may emerge from creative exercises within the sessions.
“There’ll be parts of it that’ll be word for word, exactly what they’ve said to me, but also part of my role in the process will be to distill down what is being said and find those common themes and experiences.”
It’s a collaborative process in the truest sense and while the end result will be a stage production, Mother? is also designed to exist beyond a single show.
Alongside the play, which will be performed at ARC Stockton from June 17-19 (with further dates expected to be announced), an audio piece and a portrait exhibition are in the works offering different ways for participants’ stories to be shared.
But Rachel wants the experience of taking part to be as important as the work which comes out of it.
“I just want to be able to hold a group of women and really look after them - let them lead it, and really let it organically happen. I’d absolutely love it if people who have taken part want to continue meeting beyond the workshops. There is definitely potential for the group to carry on.”
Mother? Which is supported by Arts Council England, the PFC Trust and Tees Valley Combined Authority, follows the success of Fat Chance, Rachel’s award-winning one-woman show exploring her own experience of weight gain from size 8-18.
Performed and toured across the UK in 2024, the piece was widely praised for its honesty, humour and physicality, blending storytelling with bold performance choices which included singing, dancing, kickboxing and flying Parmos.
“As anyone who saw Fat Chance will know - I’m not about just standing and talking to people for an hour,” she laughs.
While the production presentation for Mother? is still up for grabs - indeed Rachel isn’t even sure whether she’ll be on stage at this point - that same creative energy is likely to shape whatever it becomes.
“I think I’m just excited to see what comes from the workshops… how can we present that, and how can we do it in an exciting way that might not be expected,” she says.
For parents, Mother? promises recognition. For participants the possibility of connection too. And for anyone still asking themselves the question, the results of the project could become something else entirely - a space to understand what lies ahead, in all its messy, joyful and complicated reality.
Six weeks of drop in sessions at ARC, Stockton (including lunch, childcare and a warm welcome to babies) begin on March 31 and will run weekly from 12pm-2.30pm until May 12. For more information, email mother.thevillage@gmail.com or visit arconline.co.uk
Mother? Will be performed at ARC from June 15-17. Additional dates are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.