A Clean Break University of Hertfordshire co-commission, based on Dr Laura Abbott’s research project Lost Mothers.
Touring educational and professional settings in February and March 2025.
Bookings are now open. Please contact dezh.zhelyazkova@cleanbreak.org.uk to express your interest in booking a performance.
For pricing and to find out more about the play, please download our information pack.
With the voices of women with lived experience of prison at its heart, the play explores the multiple challenges faced by women who spend their pregnancy awaiting the possibility of separation, and those who are compulsorily separated from their babies.
Scenes from Lost Mothers has been designed specifically to be performed at conferences, seminars, training events or educational settings, presenting complex subject matter in a creative and accessible format.
Topics explored in the play include maternal separation, health care provision, access to mother and baby units, living conditions, increased risk of mental ill-health, and the consequences of decisions made by professionals run ragged by a system that’s falling apart.
Within the scenes, there is a celebration of the vital work of women’s organisations and campaigners. The show is a cry from the heart for change and compassion.
Clean Break and the University of Hertfordshire co-commissioned Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti to write Scenes from Lost Mothers using Dr Laura Abbott’s research project Lost Mothers as inspiration, as well as speaking to Birth Companions’ Lived Experience Team.
The play was developed with and is performed by women with experience of the criminal justice system, or at risk of entering it.
Image: Ayesha Antoine in [BLANK] by Alice Birch at the Donmar Warehouse. Credit: Helen Maybanks