Lesson 01
Translate without flattening
The stage version had to make clinical and social realities legible without turning them into a single symbolic mother.
Case 02 / live journalism case
M/OTHER
A theatre and dance production based on reporting around maternal mental health.
Location
Nigeria
Period
Documented in 2025
Organisation
QDance Company / Katy Streek / CNN As Equals
Format
Dance-led documentary performance
// IN A NUTSHELL
What this case proves
A journalism-to-stage experiment where CNN's gender reporting on maternal mental health became a 40-minute Lagos performance using dance and theatre to make postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, stigma, and care visible.
// BACKGROUND
Before the room filled
Context 01
M/OTHER came from CNN As Equals reporting on maternal mental health, with the stage version produced by Nigeria's QDance Company and theatre maker Katy Streek.
Context 02
The performance was developed for Lagos audiences at a moment when public discussion around postpartum depression and psychosis still carried stigma and silence.
Context 03
The project made a deliberate translation: long-form explanatory journalism became a public-health encounter with movement, story, and post-show dialogue.
// CASE THESIS
Why it belongs in the field
The case belongs because it proves the body can be the publishing surface for reported material.
M/OTHER is a theatre and dance production bringing reporting on maternal mental health to the stage.
It names Nigeria's QDance Company and Dutch theatre maker Katy Streek, connected to CNN's As Equals project.
The production links movement, narrative, isolation, systemic inequality, and public discussions with experts.
The work connects artistic form to maternal-health expertise and public discussion.
// HOW IT WORKS
The format has mechanics
Mechanic 01
The 40-minute piece combines theatre and dance around the emotional and social isolation that can surround pregnancy and childbirth.
Mechanic 02
Panels and short post-show discussions connected the performance to clinicians, maternal-health advocates, and public-health leaders.
Mechanic 03
Support information was distributed around the shows, which made care and referral part of the publishing logic.
// FORMAT STRUCTURE
Format first. Productions inside.
Type tags
High-production/performance
Nested events / productions
M/OTHER
The production carries the same name as the initiative.
// PRODUCTION FILE
How it moved through time
01
The production premiered at Afropolis Festival in Lagos on October 30, 2024, at the John Randle Centre.
02
Additional performances followed at Afropolis and Lagos Fringe / Freedom Park in November 2024.
03
Nigerian coverage framed the work as a call for maternal mental-health reform and broader awareness.
// LESSONS
What the case teaches
Lesson 02
Use local bodies and language
Working with QDance mattered because Nigerian performers could carry cultural language, gesture, and pressure into the adaptation.
Lesson 03
Make help visible
When journalism handles life-threatening mental-health issues, the audience needs more than emotion. It needs routes to support.
// BORROW
What travels
Embodied testimony
Expert discussion after performance
Dance as documentary structure
Health reporting beyond panel format
// DO NOT COPY
What can break
Aestheticized suffering
Body without consent trail
Unclear reporting method
// SOURCE TRAIL
Where the dossier points
// ALL 12 CASES
Same form, different room
