Red Bus Londinium Life

The early days of parenthood are exhausting, destabilising and throw every relationship into a starker relief than previously. Too often in theatre and TV, these days are presented for either their comedy value or through an idealistic lens of the love which new parents feel for the new person they have created.

It is refreshing then that The Cord at the Bush Theatre takes a deeper and more honest look into early parenthood experiences. The Cord presents much which is universal in the early days of new parenthood though in this family there are also current and past mental health issues laid bare.

In a spartan set, just fresh carpet and four chairs, father Ash (Irfan Shamji), new mother (Eileen O’Higgins) and Ash’s mum and new grandmother (Lucy Black) talk, look after the baby and argue.

The movement (by Aline David) is very clever with actors fluidly moving between scenes and with car journeys, sex scenes and baby burping all vividly believable with no props at all. The lighting (Oliver Fenwick) and live cello (Colin Alexander) effectively alter the mood.

There is much to admire in The Cord but it felt at times that Ash’s journey was given much more weight than that of the two women. We never really got to know Anya and could not judge whether the choices Ash perceived as favouring her mother over Ash were based in any reality.

His mother too was elusive, there were hints of pain and a bad back but it was hard to tell if this related to her previous post-natal issues or to something else. (Being a grandmother, perhaps bad back could be to do with age yet it was stated she was only 47?)

Writer and director Bijan Sheibani has something very beautiful and important here. The running time is only 80 minutes. Perhaps in future iterations it could be extended to have more of the women characters featured.

Have you seen The Cord? What did you think?