Koel Purie and Ira Dubey on their new play about the highs and lows of motherhood

By Neha Kirpal

After a successful world premiere in March 2023 in Paris, a new dark comedy in English, Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy!, is on a three-city India tour with the original all-women cast performing eight shows.

The 70-minute play is actor, producer, writer and TV presenter Koël Purie Rinchet’s debut at writing a play, and has been produced by actor Ira Dubey’s production company for film, television and theatre, Lila Naatak Company.

The play has several humorous and dark moments and conversations that are guaranteed to have all mothers – no matter who they are or where they come from – nodding in agreement. The protagonists, four mothers, bring up everything from sleep deprivation to anxiety, diaper blues, loneliness, guilt, school politics and the formula-milk debate.

The tongue-in-cheek play also pokes fun at ‘annoying, skinny new-age momfluencers’ who, thanks to their nannies and other help, have enough time to create reels on social media, doling out parenting best practices to other hapless mothers struggling with daily dilemmas and chores. 

Talking about her inspiration for writing the play, Koël said that it was born out of the need to break the myth and glorification of motherhood.

“Who on earth can live up to the myth of Mother Mary or Parvati? Becoming a mother is a solitary and unique experience; it can be one of the most nuanced and hardest chapters in your life story and no two mothers will have the same story to tell,” she tells eShe.

“Yet, they are bound together by a silent sisterhood that acknowledges that it ain’t easy and all the predecessors lie about it,” she adds.

Being a writer, Koël naturally poured her own personal experiences of motherhood and those of people around her into her play. “Almost every mother feels the need to talk about or share their experience because it is one of the most powerful, complex, fulfilling and confusing roles. And there are no manuals or guidelines, so you make it up as you go along,” says Koël, whose debut novel Clearly Invisible in Paris came out this August.

To her credit, the play also brings up more complex themes such as bullying, racism and so on, besides systemic discrimination by schools for kids with behavioural issues or learning disabilities.

Motherhood in transition

For her part, producer Ira says that the minute she read the script, she felt that its timing was perfect for an Indian audience.

“We are at an interesting cultural precipice, turning point, transformation or evolution today where a lot of girls are choosing not to have children. At a point when motherhood itself is being questioned and challenged, the play aims to enact that part in a woman’s journey in a realistic, raw and vulnerable way,” she tells us.

She adds, “It opens our eyes to what really motherhood entails, and where a woman’s own identity is in all this. And what happens to everything else in her life – husband, career, hobbies, interests and her own time.”

According to Ira, the world premiere of Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy! in Paris was a “smash hit”. “It is razor sharp, witty, funny, heartbreaking, relatable and frustrating. It’s also about sisterhood, and finding the connections and support that one needs while trying to be a mother balancing work and life,” she says.

Lila Naatak Company was born in 2021 with Ira’s short film The Daughter starring Naseeruddin Shah and herself. The company is currently working on a theatre production of Shakespeare’s King Lear starring Naseeruddin Shah.

Most recently seen in Hansal Mehta’s Scoop, Ira will next be seen in Freedom at Midnight, the third season of Sahir Raza’s popular courtroom drama Illegal and the third season of Potluck, the shooting for which will start soon.

‘Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy!’ was performed in Delhi on the 27th, 28th and 29th of September, followed by shows in Bengaluru on the 1st of October and shows in Mumbai on the 2nd and 4th of October.