Liberation via Lactivism! Expect to see milk, tears and confetti.
Highly physical and visual, hilariously raw and heartbreakingly real, Niplash blows open the multifaceted world of infant feeding; from the cultural expectations and taboos, to the lack of support and understanding. Through humour, honesty, and vulnerability, Karla opens a space where our stories are given a voice, and we are powerfully reminded that they matter. That we matter. And that art can be both balm and battle cry.
Karla shares her experience of feeding three children and weaves into the show stories and feeding paraphernalia kindly donated by dozens of m/others across the country. Niplash acknowledges breast, chest and formula milk feeding, does not place one form of feeding above another and seeks to honour the myriad of experiences and complex journeys. Niplash is for the mum who was spat at for bottle feeding her baby in the street, the mum told to put her tits away in a café, the mum scorned for feeding a baby with different skin colour to her own, the mum who only dare pump for her baby with the curtains closed at home. For all the m/others. For all of us.
Conceived, laboured and birthed by Karla Shacklock
Developed on Complicité’s Mudlarks International Residency
“Keep up the good work producing cutting-edge theatre for everyone in London”
Councillor Jonathan Simpson, 29 January 2018
