‘Baby’ – Life’s hard knocks shouldn’t see mothers and children torn apart… 

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, one of Britain’s best-known playwrights, has written a new play about women who “haven’t got a chance in hell”… 
 
THERE’S an image that playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti found hard to get out of her head when she first came across a line of prams being wheeled by prison staff – their mothers could only look on.  

That’s the hard reality for some women who end up in the criminal justice system, in prison, or face the prospect of being caught up in it – and are separated from their babies. 

It’s what led the well-established Bhatti (with more than a dozen plays behind her), to write ‘Baby’ which is now at Brixton House theatre, until next Saturday (October 31). Directed by Milli Bhatia, the production is presented through Brixton House and Clean Break – a theatre company that works with women with lived experience of the criminal justice system or who may be at risk of entering it. 

“The birth of a baby is such a huge moment in life, a change at home, and it just felt pointless and sad and unjust,” explained Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti to www.asianculturevulture.com about witnessing just this.

“The trigger for the play was making sense of that and exploring that. So that image, that moment, was the seed, and the play grew out from that.”

It’s a solo – monologue piece spoken by Baby (Pearl Mackie) and it’s riveting, warm, sad, funny and moving… She addresses the audience directly – she wants one thing but how does she get it?  

Baby shares her life story and Bhatti was inspired to write the play after working with Clean Break and being introduced to mothers who have experience of the criminal justice system or face the prospect of being caught up in it.  

“She’s (Baby, the character) born into poverty – she has experience of the criminal justice system but she’s also unusually clever,” said Bhatti about her creation. “She’s funny and playful and there’s a resilience about her.” 

Mackie is terrific as Baby – she seems real, believable, and like a friend or someone you may well have encountered at a house party or similar social gathering – she is someone possibly very far removed from your own experiences but yet there’s a humanity and vulnerability and smartness about her that draws you in and so long as the feeling is relatively mutual, will not just ignore you.

The play essentially throws a spotlight on women such as Baby and asks why do we do this to them? 

“There’s a lot of ignorance and misunderstanding around women in the criminal justice system,” Bhatti told us.   

“If you don’t know about them beyond the headlines, you don’t realise the trauma, the injustice and the fact that most women who are in prison are there for non-violent crimes.
 
“I think it’s really important to shed a light and talk about these things, so that people realise and hopefully develop compassion and understanding and we move towards a better, more empathetic society and culture.” 

For Bhatti, difficult life experiences – as Baby has, born to a mother who is on the edge and doing her best – is just one part of a difficult equation made all the worse by the current legal framework.
 
“What the play explores is systematic injustice.  

“The systems are almost set up to crush people, there’s the ripple effect on families, children, and also the people who work in these organisations and agencies,” continued Bhatti.  

Social workers, probation officers, police, doctors, nurses – they all enter Baby’s orbit and are not of her choosing – and sometimes, a lot just depends on the individuals themselves on the other side.  

Bhatti believes the problems are systemic – most of the women in the criminal justice system pose no threat to anyone but themselves and yet as a society we appear to want to punish, condemn and put them away somewhere out of sight and inflict misery on them and their children.  

“It’s systemic. I think there is misogyny at the heart of the system.  

“What I found particularly when I was doing ‘Scenes from Lost Mothers’ (another play that Bhatti wrote following her association with Clean Break) and speaking to lots of women with lived experience, was that there’s almost a disdain for women who have had experience of the criminal justice system — (there is) a lack of belief that they can be other than how they’re seen by the criminal justice system.” 

Effectively, we don’t, as a society, believe in women, Bhatti concluded. 

“The women I met (through Clean Break) were brilliant, capable, talented and bright. They might need support, but so do we all.” 

Indeed. 

At a post-show talk last night (October 21), Bhatti reiterated her plea for women to share their stories and seek support. 

She told us earlier: “Once we begin to understand stories, I think the incredible thing that drama can do is transcend the facts.
 
“It appeals to our hearts, and it can activate something in an audience – to start looking at different issues and ideas through a different lens.”  

See ‘Baby’ and you will appreciate that we are all failing women just like her (- young, vulnerable, smart -) currently and we can and must change it – the system of condemning and not supporting them.  

All pictures: ©HelenMurray
 
Listing 

‘Baby’ by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, until Saturday, October 31, at Brixton House theatre, 385 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9 8GL 

More info/tickets: https://brixtonhouse.co.uk/shows/baby/ 

More about Clean Break and its work  
https://www.cleanbreak.org.uk/ 

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
https://www.gurpreetkaurbhatti.com/#

Cast & production details

BABY by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti
Cast: Baby (Pearl Mackie)
Directed by Milli Bhatia
Set and Costume Design by Khadija Raza
Lighting Design by Bethany Gupwell
Sound Design by Elena Pena
Movement Direction by Gabriella Schmidt
Casting by Nadine Rennie CDG
Assistant Director: River
Design Associate and Costume Supervisor: Maariyah Sharjil
Artist Wellbeing Practitioner: Eshmit Kaur
Production Manager: Sy Supersad
Company Stage Manager: Catherine Mizrahi
Assistant Stage Manager: Anya Williams
Produced by Brixton House and Clean Break
Brixton House, London, UK
First performance October 8 2026
Pictures:©Helen Murray