Bump

By: Chiara Atik

Narrated by: Lucy DeVito, Anna Lyse Erikson, Alma Martinez, Anna Mathias, Ana Ortiz, Moira Quirk, Herbert Siguenza, André Sogliuzzo, Devon Sorvari, Inger Tudor

Length: 1 hr and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

When Claudia gets pregnant, she has a very clear plan for how she wants to give birth. Her prenatal anxieties inspire her father to create a device for safer deliveries, and Claudia realizes that nothing ever goes quite as expected. Includes a conversation with playwright Chiara Atik and Dr. Judith Reichman, an OB/GYN and longtime medical contributor to The Today Show.

Bump is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series of science-themed plays. Lead funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, bridging science and the arts in the modern world.

Recorded at The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood, in October 2020.

Directed by Rosalind Ayres

Producing DIrector: Susan Albert Loewenberg

Lucy DeVito as Mary, Apple, Receptionist

Anna Lyse Erikson as Lemon, Third Woman

Alma Martinez as Maria

Anna Mathias as Midwife, Avocado, Doula

Ana Ortiz as Claudia

Moira Quirk as Walnut, Mama, Second Woman

Herbert Sigüenza as Luis

André Sogliuzzo as YouTube Guy

Devon Sorvari as Grapefruit, Waiting Mother

Inger Tudor as Narrator, Plum, Different Mama

Producer: Anna Lyse Erikson

Recording Engineer, Editor and Sound Designer: Neil Wogensen

Senior Radio Producer: Ronn Lipkin

Foley Artist: Jeff Gardner

Mixed by Mark Holden for The Invisible Studios, West Hollywood

©2018 Chiara Atik (P)2021 L.A. Theatre Works

Mediocre

I had high hopes before listening to the play. LA Theatre Works produces quality, but the play itself, was mediocre. I was disappointed in the overall execution the script offers. I get how Atik was connecting the different story lines but I found it a drab ending. I was turned off by the annoying comments of the message boards and all the cliches, probably because it does not align with the work I try to do in social justice movements to change the narratives surrounding childbirth since becoming overly medicalized. So, maybe its a personal issue for me—the dislike. Nonetheless, I am glad works like this are being created.

As for the OB who speaks afterward. Wow! Her comment about the only thing that should be delivered at home is a pizza… she is part of the problem in America when it comes to childbirth. My mother is an OB. I am a childbirth educator. I am not coming from a place of ignorance. Her eluding to the story of pitocin and induction not being a common story by her stating that we just dont know the circumstances of this woman talked about in the play… that is not the point… the point of that story in the play was to highlight a common occurrence in the US. Blah blah blah. Lets be real, pitocin does lead A LOT of women down the road to a c-section. Look at the numbers. The afterward with the OB was a mistake in my opinion and detracted me from wanting to do research on any subject matter presented.