‘MOM’, a one-woman circus show create and performed by Shir Livne comes to Northampton on Feb. 13 and 14.
Photo credit: Beren Jones
NORTHAMPTON — ‘MOM’, a unique one-woman circus show about motherhood, is making a weekend stop in Northampton in February after the show’s creator, Shir Livne, said she hopes her distinct piece can connect with mothers and daughters everywhere.
Through the one-woman circus show, Livne asks audiences, ‘what makes a good mom?’ while shining a light on the inner thoughts that those have as potential mothers, stepmothers, bio-moms and daughters.
Looking at how mothers and daughters expect things to feel versus how they actually feel, Livne presents her absurdist take on motherhood through circus, storytelling and pages upon pages of fiery teenage journals.
“I think the heart of the story is really that motherhood is complicated, and that there is no one right way it looks or how to do it and that you’re going to mess up. Things will be difficult, but you can still look at things in a really full way,” said Livne.
‘MOM’ will be performed in Northampton on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. and Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. at The Workroom inside the Northampton Center for the Arts. Tickets are $20 plus an online booking fee. Tickets can be purchased at www.ticketleap.events/tickets/shir-wonder/northampton-mom.
‘MOM’, a one-woman circus show create and performed by Shir Livne comes to Northampton on Feb. 13 and 14. Photo credit: Beren Jones 
Livne hangs from the aerial rope during her one-woman circus show ‘MOM.’ Photo credit: Jonathan Beckley 
Livne hangs from the aerial rope during her one-woman circus show ‘MOM. Photo credit: Mikhail Lipyanskiy 
In ‘MOM,’ creator and star Shir Livne asks audiences, ‘what makes a good mom?’ while shining a light on the inner thoughts that those have as potential mothers, stepmothers, bio-moms and daughters. Photo credit: Mikhail Lipyanskiy 
In her one woman circus show ‘MOM,’ creator Shir Livne uses real journal entries from her 16-year-old self as comedy but also a throughline to the different perspectives between mothers and daughters. Photo credit: Jonathan Beckley 
In her one woman circus show ‘MOM,’ creator Shir Livne uses real journal entries from her 16-year-old self as comedy but also a throughline to the different perspectives between mothers and daughters. Photo credit: Olivia Moon Photography. 
In her one woman circus show ‘MOM,’ creator Shir Livne uses real journal entries from her 16-year-old self as comedy but also a throughline to the different perspectives between mothers and daughters. Photo credit: Melis Kooyomjian. 
Photo credit: Olivia Moon photography
Livne is based out of Boston and has been a circus artist for about 8 years after attending professional circus school at the New England Center for Circus Arts in Vermont. Before becoming a circus performer, Livne worked as a robotics process engineer for companies such as Amazone Robotics and Berkshire Grey.
“I guess I’m pretty interested in learning how things work, which the circus is filled with, so it was a good fit,” added Livne. “I think what I love about circus and what got me into it is it’s the combination of athletics and art together. Particularly that you can pursue this athletic passion, but also there is no right or wrong way to do it inherently. It’s not like gymnastics, where you’re trying to get a specific trick and be graded for it; there’s a lot of room for making it what you want it to be, and I think that’s what drew me to it at first and what I enjoy about it the most now.”
As a movement artist, Livne creates pieces that combine theater, dance and circus. She said she walks the line between comedy and tragedy, and creating absurd imagery, using clown, aerial rope and tightwire. Knowing she wanted to create her own show, Livne began brainstorming what story to tell after she moved back to Boston post circus school.
“It was actually kind of backwards. I feel like usually people have an idea and then they’re like, ‘oh I think it needs to be done in a solo show.’ For me, it was kind of the opposite. I was like, I want more time on stage to tell a more complete story. What that story is I’m not sure yet,” said Livne.
During the period between 2022 and 2024, Livne continued gathering ideas and brainstorming which of those ideas had the most crossover. Soon, she realized the heart of this story was clear.
“I realized that everything was kind of centering around this question of motherhood, both my relationship with my mom, my role as a stepmother — my step-daughter was 16 at the time — and then the question of like, ‘do I want to be a biological mom?’ There was just a lot coalescing around that. So, I was like, ‘well, I guess my show is about motherhood,’” said Livne.
She added that once she nailed down the main focus of her show, she further decided what she really wanted to say through the show. She studied the places where those past, present and future thoughts about motherhood had crossed over.
“I think for me individually, it was also just a unique time in my life when I was making the show because I think most people can recall that when they’re about 16, that’s a time where you have a maybe difficult relationship with your parents. I was also a stepparent of someone that age and I was in my early 30s, a time when a lot of people suddenly think like maybe I do want to have a kid, what does that feel like? So, it was kind of a perfect storm of all these times coalescing as well,” she added.
The 75-minute one-woman circus show about motherhood debuted in Somerville in September 2024 and has since toured in Boston, Philadelphia, NYC, Chicago and Connecticut.
Livne further explained that she uses real journal entries from her 16-year-old self as comedy but also as a throughline to the different perspectives between mothers and daughters.
“You can really feel this roller coaster of emotions I was feeling at the time, and its wild reading them now as like a 35-year-old woman and just trying to remember, what did it actually feel like to be that age. Its wild,” said Livne.
She added, “I think one of my big goals with the show was to not have myself or my mom or anyone be one-sided, like someone messed up or someone was perfect. I feel like I tried to make sure the viewer would see you can have a lot of empathy for an angry teenager, but you can also have a lot of empathy for the parent dealing with that. I think that my main goal is to just have a really full view of all the challenges of being a parent. Being a parent who may not be what we see in our minds, like being a stepparent, is really difficult sometimes and different depending on each families’ situation, so how that relationship looks can potentially be complicated.”
Livne explained that for example, she spends one part of the show using journal entries from 16-year-olds to bring that perspective front and center and reflect on her own relationship with her stepdaughter.
“I’m jumping between [perspectives] in that sometimes reading through my perspective as a 16-year-old when I’m reading the journal entries will make me realize, well, is this how my stepdaughter feels about something? Specifically, when I’m reading, thinking about my stepdaughter being 16 and me as her parent wanting to put a lot of emphasis on school and studying, and then reading through my journal entry from when I was 16 and being very frustrated at the time on the emphasis around grades. I’m like, ‘wow, I guess I forgot how that felt.’ So, there’s that kind of reflection and jumping back and forth between roles as we go.”
Now Livne brings ‘MOM’ to Northampton, a place where she used to visit regularly for the local arts scene while she was attending circus school in Brattleboro. Livne also visited the city last August to perform as a member of local circus group, SPE — or (Suspended Play and Educational Circus.
“I knew Northampton was just a great place for the arts in general,” she added. “I was able to perform with them [SPEC} in the space where I will now be performing ‘MOM,’ and it’s just such a wonderful space that, once I did that show there, I was like, I need to bring my show here. It’s just a really well-run facility. The circus community in Northampton is very wonderful and supportive, so I just knew it was the right fit.”
Livne said the reason she is passionate about creating art is her belief that it can open people up to accessing parts of themselves that are often hard to access, either due to trauma or just not having the time during the chaos of day-to-day of life. She said she is thankful to already see so many people use the show as a protected moment of accessing these thoughts through their own journey.
“My ultimate goal with the show was to use my particular story as the through line that would pull people through, but my main goal was really for people to think about their own childhoods, their own relationship with their mothers, and their own relationship to the idea of having kids, or if they already have kids, their own relationship to the idea of parenting and what it feels like,” Livne said. “And I was really happy that after every show, people came up to me, and they tell me the show made them think about their mom, that it made them think about how hard it is to be a parent, that they don’t know if they want to have kids either.”
She continued, “Or, that they have decided not to have kids, but they feel really seen by the way that I expressed my hesitation to have kids that isn’t just, ‘I don’t like children,’ but that it’s a big decision, and there’s a lot of factors involved. So, I think the reactions have been less about my particular story, but people thinking about themselves and their stories, and that was my goal, so I’m really happy how that has landed.”
Livne encourages the public to attend one of her two shows and embrace the unique show that was described by a former attendee as, “like being in an intimate conversation with your best friend in her living room, if her living room were also a carnival funhouse full of teen angst and too many plastic baby dolls.”
“I welcome people to come. I feel like I talk a lot about the big feelings involved with the show, but also it is very hilarious, I can attest to the laughter,” Livne said. “I invite people to come and enjoy the comedy and also enjoy the reflection together.”
