Anjali Mehra’s Little Grasses Crack Through the Stone features three of the best female dancers of this generation: Cordelia Braithwaite, Charlotte Broom and Estela Merlos. This sensational film was inspired by Sylvia Plath’s radio play Three Woman: A poem for Three Voices, commissioned by BBC Radio in 1962, which was presented as a series of three interwoven monologues set in a maternity ward, with one woman giving birth to a baby she takes home; another who miscarries; and a third unmarried student who gives her baby up for adoption. The three dancers portray each of these women although it seems clear from their dress that Mehra’s vision has them existing in different eras (although they are often brought together). Plath took her own life less than six months after the broadcast when her son, Nicholas, was just twelve-months’ old. He was also to kill himself, almost 50 years’ later, bringing yet another layer of poignancy to this impressive work.

Mehra’s choreography presents a powerful, emotional study into these different states of maternity, which is beautifully performed by these exceptional artists. The music, by Stephen Keech and (again) Chelsea McGough, sets the tone superbly and the setting of Ed’s Shed plus a penultimate outdoor scene on West Beach at Hayling Island is equally pertinent to the mood, with the additional appearance of Aseah Poyntz as Charlotte Broom’s character (the mother who kept her baby) in old age. -

Graham Watts for Bach Track 2020