Andra Teede turns mothers’ failures into a one-woman play

Playwright and screenwriter Andra Teede says motherhood can feel like a tornado sweeping through a woman’s life, home and free time. Her new play, “The World’s Best Bad Mother,” draws on mothers’ stories of failure and aims to show them they are not alone, Teede told ERR’s R2 Päev.

Teede gathered stories for the play, which stars actress Piret Krumm. The two created project theatre Fiasko to produce it themselves, and plan to tour Estonia with the small-scale production. For the premiere, they ordered a womb-shaped cake.

Many of the stories involved mothers forgetting things: taking a child to a birthday party on the wrong day, or mixing up the child’s schedule with a choir performance. Others described the pressures mothers put on one another, including insults on social media over choices such as allowing children to watch Peppa Pig.

Teede said mothers’ mental health was especially important to her. “You don’t sleep for three years, you’re a zombie, but you’re responsible for everything,” she said. She added that people should become mothers only if they want to, rejecting calls for everyone to have children to raise the birth rate.