Be My Baby – Manama Theatre Club – The British Club

Add to the mix a cast producing faultless performances and you have the ingredients for one of the most memorable nights witnessed on stage in Bahrain for a long time.

A special press preview night was staged on Sunday evening and with the lights dimmed I could only imagine how much better the show would be with a full audience participating in events.

It still didn’t stop me getting into the groove with a string of number one tunes from 1964 from the likes of The Beatles, The Searchers, Bill J Kramer and, of course, The Ronettes.

The music plays a huge part in the production but Amanda Whittington’s play is so much more, following the fortunes of Mary Adams, aged 19 and seven months pregnant, played by the irresistible New York theatre school-bound, Palmyra Mattner.

Sent to a special convent-style home for young unmarried women by her mother, Mary has to live with the shame of her pregnancy while pretending to her father, work colleagues and friends that she is away helping a sick aunt. She soon realises that her child will be snatched away at birth and given up for adoption.

She makes friends with the other girls, her roommate Queenie, outstandingly played by Hannah Lynch who has a sensational singing voice, dippy Dolores played with delightful delicacy by Jenny Cairns and nutty Norma, played with heartfelt passion by Hayley Furness, who needed no padding as she is heavily pregnant in real life.

This is where the audience is taken on a roller-coaster ride of emotion. I couldn’t help but have a guilty laugh at the girls’ expense, as like many before and after them, the sense of utter naivety surrounding men and relationships is heartbreakingly funny.

There’s a true sense of tragedy in every twist only eased by their bonding and the songs they sing during their chores.

The characters you want to hate strangely become figures of pity thanks to the powerful performances of Rosemary Lee in the role of Mary’s mother Mrs Adams, only trying to do what she considers best for her daughter in the circumstances, and the home’s matron, played with Julia Doorne, facing her own torments and again, trying to do what she considers best for the young women and their babies.

Congratulations to Rory Adamson and Marina Tadayon, the directors and producers, for a well-thought-out production and the occasional news reader’s announcements and DJ introductions added to the period drama.

The set was also superb and very Hull Truck in its design and use of space.

I can well appreciate why this play is widely studied at GCSE and A’ level in schools and colleges in the UK. In fact, I think it is a duty of every parent of a teenage girl and, in particular, boy, to take them to the show.

It’s a marvellous piece of theatre with a message and is not to be missed. Be My Baby runs until tomorrow.