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Maddie Chandler's original artwork for the cover of Only Human. 

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Fertility Fest 2018 – Where the Arts and Fertility Collide

A magical event, Fertility Fest 2018, is about to burst onto the platforms of The Bush Theatre in London’s W12. Bringing 150 artists and fertility experts together over the course of one vibrant week, Fertility Fest is the invention of Jessica Hepburn, one of the UK’s leading lights in the fertility world and a former Director of the Lyric Theatre. She and her Co-Director, Gabby Vautier, have created a unique programme, festooned with enticing, thought-provoking and entertaining events around questions of fertility. There will be theatre and poetry, discussion and debate. There will be photography and artwork, book readings and comedy. Above all there will be support and solidarity.

Fertility is emerging from the dark. Oodles of celebrities are now eager to share their own stories of how they’ve struggled to conceive. Artists across the world are writing and blogging about infertility, creating theatre and poetry, devising art and photography. They are even tackling comedy. Fertility Fest will celebrate this creativity and the way in which it is helping to pitch fertility matters into the limelight. Into the mainstream.

So, what’s on offer? Well, it’s all been appealingly put together, with often amusing titles to the events – which is not to say that their subject matter will be. You may be intrigued by a session entitled, The Doctor in the Bedroom. That one’s all about how it feels to be on the IVF journey. Brought vividly to life by Izzy Judd, author of memoir, Dare to Dream, and photographer, Sophie Ingleby with her project SEED. Fertility experts will join them on stage to tell us how it was for them.

You, Me and the Pornstar certainly stands out! That one’s about how it feels for the man to have to take his sticky mag into a small room and… well, you know. Photographer, Aaron Deemer’s project, Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable, captures the nature of these semen-harvesting rooms in clinics across the UK. Playwright, Gareth Farr, will also present his touching work, The Quiet House, about a male experience of IVF.

How about The Queer Family, shedding light on the LGBT community’s experience of surrogacy, assisted conception and adoption? Or the moving The M Word: Miscarriage not Motherhood, striking a more sombre tone. 

I’ll be participating in a session neatly entitled, What Comes First, the Career or the Egg? There will be an excerpt from a fabulous creation, Re:production by the White Slate Theatre Company, and a reading from Moondance, followed by a spirited debate with the experts on how young women approach their own fertility today.

Most days will conclude with a Fertility Fight Club. Various artists and fertility experts will take to the stage to fight for what they believe in. Expect feisty provocation, followed by lively debate, on such matters as Secondary Infertility: What’s the Problem? Or Yes I wanted Children, No I Don’t Want Your Children… All of it live-streamed on Facebook.

On permanent show throughout the week will be a stunning art exhibition, showcasing the work of several artists. And each evening humour will be offered, in the form of Eggsistentialism – one woman’s quest to uncover the ifs, hows and whys of reproducing her genes. Fertility Bloggers, that wonderful community who share and enlighten, often with poignant humour, will have their own dedicated session to chew the fat. And attendees will be offered the special opportunity of having their own fertility story played back through improvisation, by theatre company Drunken Sailor. There will even be a Fertility Freedom Scratch Night – an open mic opportunity for performers to showcase new and emerging work: music, theatre, poetry and more.

Fertility Fest kicks off with a book launch. 21 Miles: Swimming in Search of Motherhood, by Jessica Hepburn, charts the tale of her swim across the Channel to raise awareness of fertility issues. This launch is sold out… other tickets are disappearing fast.

Fertility Fest from 8^th to 13^th May 2018 at The Bush Theatre, London. What better way to mark the year in which Louise Brown, the world’s first IVF baby, will celebrate her 40^th birthday?