The experience that singer-songwriter Sonia Deleo had was not an uncommon one, but yet it’s an experience that few have likely discussed outside a small select group of friends and family—and not on stage in front of strangers.

When Two Moons: A Folk Lullaby comes to the Pumphouse Theatre via Handsome Alice Theatre, it will be one of the few times that the topic of an unwanted pregnancy has been discussed so openly, and so soulfully.

“This story itself, the details of it, the layers: it is all extremely common… but it is also a super solitary journey for the person that’s experiencing it, or sometimes the couple that’s experiencing it,” said Deleo.

“What I’ve found talking to many different women over the time that I’ve been creating it, is that there’s so much of it. There are friends, colleagues in my life who I would have never otherwise known had gone through something similar.”

Two Moons combines music, theatre, and comedy to dive deep into the topic, in a way that Deleo hopes is a conversation starter through what was her real-life experience.

“The thing that was really important to me was that we knew, I knew that I had to tell just my story. If I was trying to tell someone else’s, or to tell a greater story, that would never work,” she said.

“Sometimes with arts getting more the more specific and honest you can be about one experience, the better, and actually, the more accessible the story is.”

If the name Two Moons sounds familiar to local Calgary music fans, it’s because Deleo released that song in 2022. What people didn’t realize at the time was that even though the song sounds like a breakup song it related to her own experience of having an unwanted pregnancy, she said.

Coming to the point where she could put on a theatrical performance though about that though was difficult. So much so that she called it one of the hardest things she’s ever done.

“Handsome Alice is thrilled to have been along for the ride as Sonia has created this incredible personal and intimate piece over the past two years,” said Meg Farhall, Handsome Alice’s Artistic Producer.

“I was introduced to Sonia’s concept for the show in 2022 and knew we needed to do whatever we could to see the show fully realized. Sonia not only tells her own story but opens us up to some big questions and crossroads that I think we all can relate to.”

Hard topic, but not a hard performance to watch

The topic doesn’t mean that Two Moons is hard to watch. Quite the opposite, as Deleo said there is a lot of humour involved that ultimately helps audience members move past their discomfort and into seeing the human experience on stage.

“I mean, one of the beautiful things we are allowed to have as humans is humour to deal with difficult things, and I tend to be a person who under pressure and in dark and unfortunate circumstances, leans on the coping mechanism I have, which is jokes,” she said.

“I think through that, there was this natural ability to to find sort of levity in a darker subject. There’s a song called Birth Control Robot that is goofy as heck, and starts things off for us as we start digging into the story.”

She said that there was a natural humour that came from being on birth control, and yet that not working despite all the science saying that it should have. Plus, the experience of having to navigate being pregnant alone, even in the clinical setting.

“I think for guys or people who haven’t experienced something like it, there’s going to be lots there to take away in terms of the details, in terms of just getting a better understanding of what it’s like to be in the room in the clinic… because you’re not allowed to have someone come in with you,” Deleo said.

“We really are experiencing a lot of this stuff alone. Then I think that creates this precedence of I guess we shouldn’t talk about it. I hope that this show will help, maybe even, start some conversations that we aren’t yet having.”

Medically fact-checked, and conversations to be had

In order to facilitate those conversations, Deleo did something unusual for a live theatrical performance – she fact-checked it.

“Bringing in Dr. Nicole [Thompson], was really important to me so that I wasn’t leaving any facts on people’s minds that were not true. Because if people are going to see this and walk away and feel uncomfortable and then not Google it, then I wanted to make sure that nothing I said was going to be a lie or misleading in any way,” she said.

“We’re not discussing a lot of medical facts in the show, but I just wanted to make sure that I honour the experience that it is, and that I honour the perspectives of the healthcare workers that are in those spaces. I didn’t want anything to come off like we were making fun of it, or saying that it wasn’t enough.”

The March 15 performance will also include a discussion session afterward with Dr. Thompson, and representatives from the Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support Centre and Centre for Sexuality.

“It’s going to be really neat to have representatives from all of those spots to answer audience questions, and I’ll just talk on the subject of pregnancy loss in general, and hopefully shed a little light on how much is available, resources-wise, and how common it is,” Deleo said.

Two Moons: A Folk Lullaby runs from March 14 through 22 at the Pumphouse Theatre. Tickets are available through Handsome Alice at handsomealice.com.