Baby review – Pearl Mackie is meticulous as an abuse survivor

Brixton House, London Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s compassionate solo play follows a young mother’s struggle to get life back on track after time behind bars Plenty of abuse survivors don’t go on to commit terrible crimes, argues the titular Baby as she attempts to make sense of the cause-and-effect cycle that landed her in prison and saw her precious baby daughter forcibly removed.

It’s a line that echoes the more merciless commentary surrounding the case of US death row inmate Christa Pike, whose failed execution last month led to global headlines.

Produced by Clean Break, a theatre company built specifically for women in the sightlines of the criminal justice system, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s compassionate solo play offers a holistic, cradle-to-grave look at its character’s life, while spotlighting a broken pipeline.

Once you’ve fallen through the cracks and into a gutter of crime and drug dependency, it argues, it’s impossible to climb back out.

Survive and you’ll become a number with a case file and a lack of agency, whose remaining years will be spent pinballing between probation officers and case workers.

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