e-baby

[6] The reviewer for Stage Whispers expressed concerns that this use of projections and technology-facilitated communications would be a distraction, but praised its simple execution as seeming "entirely natural" and as adding to the experience by achieving a closeness to the actors that is rare, even in very intimate theatres.

[1] Gestational surrogacy has been a subject for Cafarella for years, and she is praised for touching "on most of the biological, technical, ethical and legal aspects ... in the play's 95 minutes ... without the loud sound of boxes being ticked".

[8] Catherine's character is both "excited about the prospect of being a mother" but also struggling with "the desperation and shame that she [feels] in fear of being seen as less of a woman," while Nellie is "not fully comprehending what she has agreed to, and [experiencing] the conflict this provokes with her religious beliefs," while each is dealing with a "forced" friendship.

[9] e-baby received a rehearsed reading at the So and So Arts Club in London on 14 July 2015, directed by Pamela Shermann and starring Kat Rogers (Catherine) and Becky Hands-Wicks (Nellie).

[10] The Sydney premiere was in October 2016, with the Ensemble Theatre under the direction of Nadia Tass, multi-award winner for her films Malcolm and Amy, and starred Danielle Carter as Catherine and Gabrielle Scawthorn as Nellie.

[4] Guardian reviewer Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, writing about the Sydney production, criticised the play for cutting short difficult-to-watch scenes, rather than pushing deeper by allowing them to last longer, a weakness ascribed to Cafarella's relative inexperience as a playwright.

[8] The play could delve more deeply into the topic[6] as it does "touch upon morally heavy issues with a keen sincerity that is hard to resist"[8] but in circumstances where "women's rights over our bodies are being condemned, scrutinised and attacked now more than ever, it does feel like there's something more to give".

Indeed, another such production doesn't readily spring to mind ... [and] the men in the characters' lives, well, they were so peripheral as to be almost incidental ... [in this] play about hope and trust and how two women who would otherwise never have crossed paths are connected by a surrogate pregnancy.

"[5] She also loved that money "was not the driving factor for enlisting as a surrogate but rather the burning desire to help someone fulfill a spiritual and moving part of the human condition and experience for a woman.