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Don’t throw the baby in the crib. Don’t shout at Baby. And certainly, check Baby’s gender before naming it.

These are not startling revelations, but childlike parents who, in Christopher Durang’s Baby with the Bathwater, go through the motions of raising a child to adulthood, showing the disturbing way in which young Daisy’s evolution is affected by the actions of parents with no constant boundaries.

As Daisy grows up around a bipolar mother and a scatterbrained father, the crazed household moulds a confused and angry child, hilariously deluded about the world and stunted by concepts instilled in infancy.

Staged unassumingly in the back room of Docksiders Pub and Restaurant on Front Street, Waterspout Theatre’s latest offering is a refreshing departure from elaborately staged works.

Showcasing the actors’ talents as they coax the audience into suspending their disbelief, the show has an overall effect of drawing the spectator into a surreal world of a family so concerned about not restricting their child that they offer no opportunities for the baby to mature.

The disturbing black comedy delves into Daisy’s world, most notably in a series of psychiatric evaluations where the confused youth expresses in grotesque detail the inner workings of a mind infected from birth.

The very romance of the surroundings make the play unique within Bermuda’s cultural lexicon, as one realises that Waterspout’s devotion to theatre is borne of an honest desire to perform, regardless of venue.

Though the stage is sparse, the acting is what truly grabs the viewers’ attention.

Jane Stark’s portrayal of a resentful wife and mother, crashing from moments of pure elation to self-indulgent tantrums, is contrasted perfectly with Andrew Bacon’s subdued depiction of a father crippled with fear of responsibility, despite an honest will to raise a well-adjusted child. Sadly, and comically, neither have any idea how to do so.

As the play progresses, we see the eclectic group of adults who influence Daisy’s life.

A wild-eyed woman played by Elizabeth Dunton whisks Daisy away in a failed kidnap attempt, and Barbara Jones’ disturbing school principal thwarts the efforts of a well-meaning, concerned teacher (Alison Evans) to help Daisy make sense of a very confusing childhood, marked by a lustful and domineering nanny as played by Jennifer Burrell, a sort of demented Mary Poppins.

As a grown-up Daisy, Douglas Jones shows us a deeply frustrated adult trying to make sense of a horrifying childhood while an infuriatingly deadpan behaviour analyst (Thomas Moore), merely ratchets up Daisy’s anger through trite questioning and a general inability to understand Daisy’s issues.

Baby with the Bathwater brings a taste of the absurd to Bermuda, delivering both comic, and earnest, confusion and aggravation: A balance struck just right by director John Zuill.

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