Because I’m a Mother

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Drama

BBC Radio 4 LW

Drama: Because I’m a Mother

Drama on 4

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Because I’m a Mother

Jessica Hynes plays artist Marcie in a new drama by poet and playwright Caroline Bird.

Artist Marcie (Jessica Hynes) takes a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make an installation in New York, but must leave her young son behind in the UK for ten weeks.

Jessica Hynes and Sinead Matthews star in an original drama by Caroline Bird, about dual motherhood, cannibalising life to make art, and making babies when you and your partner are both women. 

Marcie, an artist, takes a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a show in New York about motherhood, but must leave her baby son behind in the UK for ten weeks to do so. While Marcie builds the giant installation which represents the culmination of 20 years' work, her wife Dawn is back home with their little boy - child-proofing the cupboards and trying to scrape pureed carrot out of the inside of the radiator. Over a series of video calls, the couple’s relationship comes under strain, and in New York, Marcie must navigate the world of high end galleries and media calls, answering impossible questions about the nature of motherhood and art. 

Caroline Bird is the author of six books of poetry, the most recent of which – The Air Year – won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2020. Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, was shortlisted for the 2017 TS Eliot Prize and The Ted Hughes Award. Her theatre credits include: The Trojan Women (Gate Theatre, 2012,) The Trial of Dennis the Menace (Purcell Room, 2012,) Chamber Piece (Lyric Hammersmith, 2013,) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Northern Stage, 2015,) The Iphigenia Quartet (Gate Theatre, 2016.) She was shortlisted for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her new play, Red Ellen, about the life of Ellen Wilkinson, was recently featured in The Guardian’s ‘Future Plays’ series. 

Marcie - Jessica Hynes
Dawn - Sinead Matthews
Evalyn - Tracy Wiles
Lucy - Haley McGee
Podcaster - Kerry Shale

With other roles voiced by members of the cast. 

Written by Caroline Bird
Studio Production by Michael Harrison
Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio in Bristol

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Drama

Because I’m a Mother

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4