Writers: Charlie Culley and Adela Hernandez Derbyshire
Director: Emily Susanne Lloyd
It would be hard to find another show that finds so many comic uses for a prosthetic pregnancy belly. Performed at the seventh edition of the Bitesize Festival, Baby Steps forms part of the celebrations of Riverside Studios’ 50th anniversary, and it’s great to see a play living up to the event’s demand for unapologetically bold, vigorous storytelling and the very best kinds of experimentation.
Georgina (Adela Hernandez Derbyshire) and Molly (Charlie Culley) reunite in a hospital ward after seven years of silence between them. Once two best friends during A Levels, they slipped out of contact after Molly heard Georgina gossiping about her and decided to cut her off. Now, Georgina is pregnant and, as much as her best friend may not want to help her, Molly is the only midwife in the hospital to hand.
Ultimately, it’s a tale of female friendship that intersperses sketches about conception practices that begin with cavewoman, travel through the Scottish graverobbing era and then land somewhere very close to our own. The dialogue and rapport between both actors — a sure-fire comic duo — are certainly the components which bring this play to life.
The set and costumes are deceivingly simple. Wacky props, bizarre movement pieces and a plot that folds across time highlight the many illogical and immoral practices that have threatened the lives of women about to conceive: One delivery table, one fake pregnancy belly which moonlights as the hunch in a character’s back and other small items like a syringe, nappies and plastic sheets. What gives this play its magical wonder is the fact that each of these serves many multifarious purposes throughout the script. If at first the stage seems bare, it is only because they have stripped the work to its glorious bones and not overcooked the audience’s eyes with unnecessary knickknacks.
The lighting and tech are punchy, thrown into the script at unsuspecting moments and separate the abstract storyline that moves across history with the more natural, white light that serves to push the primary narrative forward right up to Georgina giving birth.
Ultimately, Baby Steps is the exact type of act you want to see as the sky turns greyer. It’s not that they shy away from the hard-hitting topics and broken friendships; isolation as well as burnout features throughout. It’s that this pair finds a new way to laugh about the stuff which, since time began, has been getting women down.
Runs until 28 August 2026
Bitesize Festival runs until 31 August 2026
