Actor, writer and theatre-artist Kalki Koechlin is revisiting one of the most personal chapters of her life through Aadyam Theatre’s Belly of the Beast, inspired by her book The Elephant in the Womb. But as the story moves from page to stage, Kalki says it has evolved into something far larger than her own experience. “The book is only my own experience of motherhood, whereas Belly of the Beast is about five different women’s experiences of motherhood,” she says. “It’s really taken off from the book and has become something else now.” ‘WE’RE BRINGING IT INTO A MORE EPIC SPACE’ For Kalki, theatre offers possibilities that writing simply cannot. The stage allows the production to capture the larger-than-life nature of pregnancy and motherhood through visual storytelling. “The theatrical version helps us explore the magic of realism and this idea that the transformation that happens to women when they’re pregnant is so much bigger and larger than life,” she says. The production uses shadow puppetry, music and physical movement to amplify emotions that can feel difficult to articulate on paper. “Being a performer on stage in Belly of the Beast has let the magic come out,” she explains. “We’re using shadow puppetry that can be really gigantic on stage. We’re using a lot of music and physicality with the body of the actor. We’re really bringing it into a much more epic space than what it could be when you read it on paper.” THE NEW PRESSURE TO BE A ‘PERFECT MOM’ While motherhood has always come with societal expectations, Koechlin believes social media has created a new set of pressures for women. “There’s definitely this sort of pressure because of social media to be a perfect mom and to be a happy mom,” she says. At the same time, she is cautious about comparing today’s challenges with those faced by previous generations. “I don’t know if it’s worse or better than the traditions expected of previous women. Women were giving birth to eight to ten children. I can’t see that as being particularly wonderful.” What has changed, she says, is the nature of the expectations. “There’s this sort of super-mom expectation that you can do it all, that you can go to work and be at home and have all of it. So yes, there is a different kind of expectation that we are navigating.” LOOKING BACK WITH PERSPECTIVE Revisiting her own experiences of pregnancy and motherhood through the play remains an emotional journey. “Sure, 100%,” she says when asked if returning to those memories affects her. “I get all kinds of emotions thinking back.” Yet the passage of time has also brought perspective. “There’s also a wonderful perspective to having had the years pass, which is nice to know that, okay, these things pass.”
