Mama Stitch to celebrate Port Hedland mums at the Courthouse Gallery and Studio

A storytelling experience, celebrating mums for all their imperfections, challenges and triumphs is coming to Hedland.

Mama Stitch, featuring performer-actor Georgia King, performer-musician Mark Storen and musicians Holly Garvey and Luke Dux, will be performed at the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery and Studio on November 11 and 12.

The show, performed by Perth-based company Whiskey and Boots, a performance company which makes headphone verbatim performance work, takes real stories gathered from a community and shares them publicly.

The show will feature stories about mums are collected from the people in Port Hedland, distilled and brought to life as headphone verbatim performance, with each story underscored by an original musical response, inspired by the stories shared.

“Our relationships with our mums is probably has the biggest influence on who we become as people,” King said.

“While there are shows about the experience of being a mum, there aren’t many shows exploring the experience of being mothered, which is surprising given how much material is there that is funny, tragic, frustrating and very relatable. So we created Mama Stitch.”

King said the performance was low-fi and reminded viewers of the strength of histories, families and the affirmative power of storytelling.

“Our work is low-fi, stripped back and welcoming, the fourth wall doesn’t exist. Through the sharing of honest moments in intimate spaces we can try to understand each other better, boldly, honestly, playfully,” she said.

Audiences are invited to have a hot cup of tea and a slice of toast, with homemade jam as they listen to stories and music, reflecting on the mothers of the local community.

At the end of the performance, audiences can contribute to the project by writing their own anonymous ‘Dear Mum’ letter to be displayed in the space.