Just because you are a mother, it does not mean you stop being your mother’s child. In her show Motherf*cker, Oscar nominated comedian and writer Jena Friedman paints a bleak yet biting portrait of the intersections between public and personal grief. Alternating from harrowing anecdotes about America’s current political climate to the most intimate details of becoming and losing a mother, Friedman weaves together her threads of grief to create a tapestry of the female experience that serves as a time capsule of the events and cultures that define womanhood today.
Friedman opens the show by walking onto the stage wearing a Make America Great Again cap while screaming the words to ‘God Bless the USA’. If you’re not an American like myself, at first you may think, this is not for me. However, despite her distinctively American perspective, Friedman’s show is not limited to an American audience as her articulation of the sobering realities for women translate universally for all Fringe goers.
Her masterclass in comedy manifests in many ways throughout her performance, but particularly in the ways she adapts to the crowd and the venue with such ease. One cannot deny that the stage and an audience are her natural habitats. Poking fun at her male audience by fearlessly daring to condemn their near vegetative roles in the lives of the women who have likely dragged them along to the show creates a liberating atmosphere in which momentarily, removes the presence of patriarchy’s dictatorship in our world.
There’s a moment in the show where Friedman recounts the day she received the call that her mother had cancer, “not the good kind” of one. She remembers cradling the baby in her stomach, and telling her son that everything would be okay. Despite cracking raunchy jokes about her sexuality since pregnancy only a few seconds ago, Friedman seamlessly segues into this sincere encounter with grief. Losing your mum may be the worst thing that has happened or will happen to you—American democracy coming in at a close second. But Friedman’s show is a reminder of how loss is only the presence of so much love.
Motherf*cker is running until the 24 August at Hive 1, Monkey Barrel Comedy. Tickets available here.
Image courtesy of Lindsey Byrnes, provided to The Student as press material.
