MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
No woman no cry
SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Lizzie Watts and Andre Squire in Jane Upton’s (the) Woman
[Manuel Harlan] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
(the) Woman
The North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford
JANE UPTON’s unflinching diatribe against motherhood largely takes the form of a series of duologues or hard hitting, humorous sketches about a female playwright facing the physical, emotional and psychological challenges of coping with a baby.
From the sexual strains on her marriage and exhaustion to restrictive social perceptions of motherhood and the impact on her career, (not to mention the physical changes brought on by childbirth), the 100-minute play takes a broad sweep at the often overlooked, lifechanging event of raising a child.
Lizzy Watts plays the sharply spoken, often crude mother with more than her share of attitude, but this slightly unsympathetic portrayal fits the character’s own sense of self-loathing brought on by a minefield of contending emotions and degraded self-image.
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