Review: SCRAMBLED at Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Company

Mildred's Umbrella Theatre Company started its 2022-2023 season with a show like no other, making its audience laugh and cry while educating about the struggles of infertility and motherhood for women. Set in a bathroom (a place that can be filled with peace, agony, and discovery), SCRAMBLED follows one woman's journey to conceive, inspired by the true story of the performer. This one-woman show was devised by Israeli actor and writer Rotem Nachmany and directed by Maya Bitan and Maayan Dobkovski. A highly physical show that is intimate, unsettling, liberating, and thought-provoking, this production is for people of all genders and personal experiences.

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SCRAMBLED first premiered at the Teatronetto Theatre Festival in 2019, and then it was performed at the 2020 Stockholm Fringe Festival and 2020 International Exposure of Israeli Theatre. It was invited to festivals in Denmark, Serbia, and Slovenia, and it has been performed in both Nachmany's native Hebrew and English. Mildred's Umbrella, a Houston-based theatre company, hosted three performances of this unique production with Rotem Nachmany herself from September 16th -18th.

Within her performance, Rotem Nachmany shows off a variety of skills such as singing and dancing in order to present her story of marriage, infertility, hormonal treatments, gender roles, societal expectations, loss, and strength. She also showcases her stellar physical control, flexibility, timing, and versatility as she worked through the varying plot points. It was incredibly miraculous to see what she was able to represent and emote with body movement, isolated facial expressions, and breath alone. With her skill, Nachmany was able to tell such an honest and real piece in an abstract way that was still incredibly clear for all audience members. It was the most intense 45 minutes of theatre that I have ever experienced, and I feel grateful and lucky to have had the chance to see this truly special show.

The minimal lighting elements, sound design, and usage of no more than 10 props also aided the storytelling, amping up every event discussed. It was astonishing to see Nachmany use each prop to represent multiple different objects, such as eggs to represent a marriage cracking, a tutu to represent a vagina, and a toilet to be a portal and sanctuary for many matters and sentiments. There was even audience participation as Nachmany broke the fourth wall time and time again to ask for baby names, look for assistance on how to read a pregnancy test, and hold various props for her.

After the show, there was a talkback with Rotem Nachmany (the writer and performer), Maya Bitan (one of the directors), Jennifer Decker (Mildred's Umbrella's executive artistic director), and Guy Cohen (the former Israeli cultural liaison that helped connect Nachmany with Decker). In the talkback, Decker first spoke on how she had first seen Nachmany's work through a filming of it at a virtual theatre festival that occurred during COVID. As soon as she saw the production, Decker knew that she wanted the rights of the play for Mildred's Umbrella someday. Then, Cohen reached out to Decker to try to have Nachmany, one of his former students, perform Scrambled as part of Mildred's Umbrella's season, sending a link to one of Nachmany's performances. Little did Cohen know, Decker had already seen the performance and ecstatically agreed to do whatever was necessary to have Scrambled's U.S. premiere be in Houston!

During the talkback, Nachmany spoke of how she was diagnosed with a severe form of endometriosis, a disease where uterine tissue grows in places it is not supposed to. In her case, it caused such severe inflammation in her fallopian tubes that they were essentially cut off, meaning that her ovaries could no longer deliver eggs to her uterus for fertilization. This led to her having to go through treatments and profound emotional turmoil in order to try to have a child of her own.

Nachmany shared that the process of building this show has been cathartic for her. She has felt relief and connection as audiences responded to her piece in a such a supportive way. Many women in the Houston audience even shared their own stories as well as the stories of their friends and family members who are going through the exact same problems as Nachmany.

Through the talkback, many audience members also discussed with Nachmany about how the issue of fertility complications is not discussed publicly and openly because it is related to intimate female organs. Due to this taboo element of talking about female anatomy as well as the shame of not being able to do what is seen as the most natural ability of women, many women struggle with infertility in silence. However, Nachmany spoke about how she hopes to use her talents and training to be a voice for women who go through what she went through, which we were informed is 1 in every 5 women around the world.

It was shared that multiple audience members felt the same need for openness on the subject, and it was therapeutic for many to hear the subjects discussed in this show directly and simply in a sympathetic, poetic, or comedic way. After watching the show, one female audience member shared that she hopes that with more theatre like Nachmany's show, women struggling with infertility will feel that they are not alone, that they can talk about their difficulties without embarrassment, and that they can challenge society's expectations and judgments on female journeys with conception.

This production was brought to Houston all thanks to Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company (MU). MU is a theatre company that has been around since 2001, bringing original productions and premieres to Houston audiences. The company has produced nineteen seasons of programming as well as collaborations with fringe festivals, universities, other theatres, and even a mini-tour of Texas. MU is committed to repairing the gender disparity on industry stages by producing works by women, featuring strong female protagonists, and having teams of actors, designers, and crew members who are primarily female. As a thought-provoking and edgy piece about female struggle, SCRAMBLED was a perfect fit for MU and everything it stands for.

As Houston's premier female-focused theater, MU is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and you do not miss what they are doing for the Houston theatre community and beyond! An exciting show that is being presented to Houston soon is the world premiere of "Tooth and Tail" by Elizabeth A.M. Keel, which has been developed and workshopped through the support of Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company. "Tooth and Tail" is a family-friendly swashbuckler piece that explores the dynamics of female friendship and love. Jam-packed with princesses, dragons, pirates and more, it is part fairy-tale, part rescue mission, part love story, and all adventure! Performances of "Tooth and Tail" will run May 4-13, 2023 at the Deluxe Theatre (3303 Lyons Avenue, Houston, TX 77020). You can purchase tickets for this production NOW here or see the rest of Mildred's Umbrella's season here.

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