Stuff to do if there’s no picnic where you are …

For international readers…

Something for anyone in the Montreal area … a new play opened last week that sounds fascinating. Here’s a bit of the review:

Montréal playwright Elyse Gasco’s “Bye Bye Baby,” which opened last week at the Centaur Theatre, explores and exposes the difficulties of adoption in a novel way — one that delivers the deep feelings of everyone involved. Friday’s performance was well-told, powerful and ultimately satisfying. Elle is a writer who has just found that she is pregnant, and the father is no longer involved. She is also adopted, and this turn of events makes her desire to know her birth mother acute. The next logical step, Elle approaches social services where she meets the over-worked but caring social worker Babs Dubois. Babs warns Elle of the unlikelihood of success as it was a private adoption, one arranged by the doctor.

The slowness of the process only incenses Elle. Her stuffy adoptive mother, hurt because she doesn’t understand Elle’s need, pledges support anyway. When Babs finds the name of the mother, Elle cajoles and even threatens to get the name. No surprise, Babs doesn’t give in as it would be against the law. Still, she makes contact with the birth mother. What ensues pushes everyone to their limits — everyone is forced to come to grips with the situation and themselves.

“Bye Bye Baby” is a realistic and truly satisfying story. What makes it novel is its use of another character, Elle’s alter ego, who plays a major role. It also includes many flights of imagination, much symbolism and even dreams. Often these would be a distraction, but in Gasco’s able hands, they serve to reveal the characters’ deepest feelings and heighten the emotional intensity.

I’d love to hear from anyone who sees this.

And if you’re in the heart of the UK, there’s a new service in Herfordshire:

The Post-Adoption Centre, a registered charity which has been helping all those involved in adoption since 1986, has started operating a monthly counselling outreach surgery …

Anyone who wishes to discuss adoption related issues is welcome, including adoptive parents and permanent foster carers, birth mothers, fathers and other birth relatives who have lost children to adoption, adopted people, including those who were adopted transracially, prospective adopters and parents who have experienced adoption breakdown, plus professionals working in the field of adoption.

That’s it for a holiday Monday in Seychelles. It’s Labour Day here and Mark’s home. so we’re off to the beach for a picnic!

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