Child Review: Pearl Mackie as a Survivor of Abuse Is Precise

Gorpreet Brixton's solitary play, Kaur Batti in London, follows a young mother's struggle to return to life on her own path after a time behind bars. It is a thread that reflects a harsher interpretation of the case of Krista Pike, who was sentenced to death.

The titular baby says that many survivors of abuse don't commit horrific crimes, as she tries to understand the cycle of cause and effect that landed her in prison and forcibly removed her precious baby girl. It's a line that echoes a more brutal commentary on the case of death row inmate Krista Pike, whose botched execution made global headlines last month.

Produced by Clean Break, a theater company, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's compassionate solo play is made specifically for women while depicting a broken pipeline. It argues that once you've fallen through the cracks and into the gutter of crime and drug addiction, it's impossible to get out. Survive and you'll become an underrepresented case number whose remaining years are spent pinballing between probation officers and caseworkers.

Dr. Who's Pearl Mackey plays Baby with care, transitioning from a precocious child in her class—despite her behind-the-scenes role as nurse for her mother—to a young woman who unwittingly tangles with an older criminal, ends up behind bars, then struggles to get back on track.

Like Pike, Baby might not do well in the court of public opinion, but an official hearing probably won't give us the full story he's giving us straight. "You believe it, right?" begs Uma, wide-eyed. We do.

Although we see brief flashes of reasonable anger, Baby is almost constantly beaming under Milli Bhatia's watch, and seems to take the hit very lightly. I longed for Beebe to respond to her turmoil more eloquently, like Dennis Gough in People, Places and Things or Sophie Melville in Iphignia in Splat.

Her understated sunkiness frees her from stereotypes, and in Khadija Reza's yellow ensemble, that's apparently the point. But the details of his most difficult ordeals are also glossed over, leaving the feeling that we're watching a watered-down, censored version of a darker story.