Madre de azúcar
Creators: name: Clàudia Cedó
Publisher: name: DARIAH-DE
Year: 2023
Subjects: Disability Rights
Suicide
Abortion
Maternity
Pregnancy
Conservatorship
Motherhood
Cognitive Disability

description: Abstract 
The play deals with the story of Cloe. The young woman of 27 years experiences a solid wish to become a mother. However, Cloe is not considered responsible for caring for a child due to her 65% intellectual disability. After three dates with different guys, she gets pregnant but loses the baby, which drives her into a deep depression and even an unsuccessful suicide. 

Details 
“I am Cloe. I am 27 years old, and I have a hidden wish. Here”, the young woman in the pink sweater points at her stomach. The play starts with this declaration of Cloe and a further explanation of why other people think she could never handle a child because of her intellectual disability of 65%. “They say: I cannot build a family.” The people around her would not see her as a mother but rather more as an angel who has no carnal desires or romantic wishes. Even her mother, Teresa, does not see Cloe as an adult but a dependent child. 
Cloe loves to care for children, so she sets up an announcement in the newspaper for the neighbours to be the nanny for their kids. Teresa does not find her daughter responsible enough and turns down the incoming calls from parents in their neighbourhood. This intervention is enough for Cloe, who wants to move from her mother’s house to the so-called “Foundation,” a supported institution for people with disabilities. In the apartments at the Foundation, they live up to four people. They are supervised by a caretaker, who looks after them and takes them to sports or workshops. The roommates wanted to establish a peculiar disco-planetarium in Cloe’s future room as they had demanded more autonomy from the Foundation’s management. But this strange disco-planetarium now must make way for the new resident, Cloe, so there is initially a lousy mood at her arrival. Especially Marc, who uses a wheelchair, is very disappointed with Albert, the director of the Foundation. 
Cloe wants to become a “rebellious woman” at the Foundation and takes lascivious photos with her friend Chris for her online dating profile on Tinder. She wants to make out with strangers to get pregnant. “To be a mother” is the wish that takes Cloe on two dates with different boys. 
The caretakers don’t suspect anything due to Cloe’s contraceptive implant, which was supposed to be there, but unknown to them, she did not let the doctor insert it at her last visit. Her mother, Teresa, has allowed her daughter to persuade the doctor to give her birth control pills instead, but Cloe does not take them and has thrown them in the rubbish. 
As Maria, the caretaker and supervisor of this apartment, finds the dumped pills, Cloe’s plan is busted, and she is almost expelled from the Foundation. However, Albert, Maria, and Cloe’s mother agree that she can stay in the Foundation to reflect enough on whether she can handle a child. 
In Cloe’s opinion, she has already thought about it enough, so she decides to go on a third Tinder date with another guy, which results in a positive pregnancy test. Meanwhile, she falls in love with Marc, who has liked her since moving in. 
Albert, Maria, and Teresa want Cloe to abort, and when they realize that Cloe won’t have custody of her child, Cloe doubts her plan of becoming a single mother. Nevertheless, the decision to keep the child is taken away from her, as an examination by the gynaecologist reveals that the unborn child has no heartbeat. Cloe loses her child and falls into a deep depression. She feels “tired” and one-day overdoses on sleeping pills. This suicide attempt is discovered by Marc, resulting in Cloe being taken to a hospital in time to have her stomach emptied.
When she wakes up from a long sleep, her mother is already at her side, and a little later, Marc comes in as well. Cloe wants to apologise to everyone for upsetting them, especially Marc. He, in turn, wants to ask Cloe officially if she wants to be his girlfriend, but for Cloe, this is already clear, and the two laugh and kiss.
Cloe has many reasons to be optimistic about returning to her life: There will be “maternity assistance” at the Foundation, her mother will allow her to work as a nanny, and Cloe decides to move into her flat. Sometimes, she dreams about being a mother in the future, but until this can happen, she must be able to sustain herself and her future family.