Hush Now – the untold stories of Mother & Baby Homes
‘Hush Now’ is a performance project that was created by Estelle van Warmelo & colleagues at Feral Productions to uncover the hidden stories of unmarried mothers from Herefordshire’s distant, and not so distant history. Over five years the project has grown, travelling across the West Midlands and is now entering its next phase as it evolves to become a work of musical theatre.
‘Hush Now’ gives voice to the unmarried mothers who were silenced and hidden away in Mother & Baby Homes across the UK for over a hundred years – telling the untold stories of resilience and bringing to light the tales of courage, determination, strength and unity that brought women together from different walks of life.
Estelle is a director and writer who co-wrote our inspiring WMWA 40th Anniversary song “Still Strong”. Following our work together, Estelle reached out to us last year to invite WMWA service users to participate in creative workshops to share their experiences, helping to inform and shape the project.
Over the last few months Feral Productions have been developing ‘Hush Now’ – turning it into a musical – and in September we were invited to a preview of selected scenes from the workshopping part of this process.
“It’s so brilliant to be able to share our fledgling musical with Sally and Jo from WMWA. Their feedback was invaluable and we are looking forward to sharing the future developments with them as they unfold. It’s been an eye opener to realise how some of the ‘Hush Now’ themes are still so relevant today…” (Estelle van Warmelo, Artistic Director Feral Productions)
Sally Langston, WMMA Communications Manager and Jo Brown from our Children & Young People’s Safe Accommodation Team, attended what was an inspiring and moving evening:
“It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to see this project coming together in such a beautiful, thought-provoking way. We were so impressed by the captivating performances of the entire cast & were incredibly moved. It was a pleasure to be able to give feedback at this draft stage and we very much look forward to seeing the final production”. Sally Langston, WMWA Communications Manager