Mother May We
by Mel Ree

Presented by Griffin Theatre Company
Supported by City of Sydney
28 September - 8 October, 2022
The Stables Theatre (Sydney, Australia)

If you’re a first generation Australian woman. If you’re the daughter of a black mother. If you’ve inherited their pain—of escaping the horrors of third world conditions, of carrying physical and emotional trauma, of reckoning with an unfamiliar western frontier that regards you as ‘other’—then you’ll know how difficult it is to ask for permission to heal.

How can you balance your history with your unwritten future? How can you inhabit an individual identity when you’ve inherited the truths of your ancestors? How can you open your arms and feel the sunshine on your skin when secrecy and shame drain the colour from your parents’ eyes?

Poet Mel Ree rhapsodises about intergenerational trauma and marries ancestral and modern truths in a truly epic and cathartic performance. Peppering playful performance art with humbling, hard truths, Mother May We is a motivational manifesto for how to heal.

  • ★★★★ 1/2 “I was captivated from the very beginning.”

    Kate Young, Sydney Scoop

  • ★★★★ "Ree expertly reels the audience in – as she confronts the abuse and loneliness of her past, you are unable to look away, implored to relive it alongside her."

    Jasmine Joyan, Time Out Sydney

  • ★★★★ “With magnetism seeping from every pore, Ree makes an hour in her presence feel a fleeting moment.”

    Suzy Wrong, Suzy Goes See

  • ★★★★ “Mother May We runs the gamut from trauma to celebration, as Mel Ree puzzles out the pieces of her life to find out who she is and it’s a spiritually and emotionally fulfilling journey. All in a tight 65 minutes.”

    Chad Armstrong, The Queer Review

  • ★★★★ “Some of the juiciest language you’ll hear on an independent stage.”

    Justin Clarke, Theatre Thoughts

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Promotional Trailer

Creative Team

Writer & Performer Mel Ree
Lighting Designer Frankie Clarke
Projection Designer Nema Adel
Sound Designer Steven Khoury
Associate Sound Designer Sam Cheng
Costume Designer Georgia Harper
Movement Choreographer Fetu Taku
Dramaturg Jackson Used
Stage Manager Natalie Low
Producer Bec Annetts
Publicist Sean Landis
Production Manager Saint Clair
Production Assistant / Production Photographer Defne

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