9 March 2025
The transition into motherhood causes some of the most dramatic physiological and psychological changes in a person, rivalled only by adolescence. A process that has historically been sorely neglected and under-reported, Lucy Jones shares her professional and deeply personal experience to shed light on this altering metamorphosis
Co-curated by Michelle Law
| Date | Time |
| Sunday 9 March 2025 | 1:30pm |
| Ticket | Price |
| Standard | $35 |
$8.95 booking fee applies per transaction
Prices correct at the time of publication and subject to change without notice. Exact prices will be displayed with seat selection.
The only authorised ticket agency for this event is Sydney Opera House. For more information about Authorised Agencies, see the frequently asked questions below.
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9am, Tuesday 14 January 2025
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9am, Wednesday 15 January 2025
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9am, Thursday 16 January 2025
Wheelchair accessible:
There are a number of wheelchair and companion seating locations in our theatres. To book accessible seating contact Box Office:
Telephone
+61 2 9250 7777
(Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm AEST)
Email bookings@sydneyoperahouse.com
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Run time
This talk runs for approximately 60 minutes.
Event duration is a guide only and may be subject to change.
Age
Recommended for ages 15+.
Lucy Jones, ‘Matrescence’We still barely acknowledge the psychological and physiological significance of becoming a mother: how it affects the brain, the endocrine system, cognition, immunity, the psyche, the microbiome, the sense of self.
Useful information:
Radically revealing the science of motherhood
Acclaimed science journalist and author Lucy Jones (UK) is a pioneer in the emerging concept of matrescence, exploring how the changes in the maternal brain and body are far more profound, wild and enduring than we have been led to believe.
Part memoir and part research, her latest book – named ‘Book of the Year’ by The New Yorker, the New Statesman and the Daily Mail – is an urgent examination of motherhood and mental health. Drawing from her lived experience, she seeks to unburden mothers from the weight of unrealistic medical, cultural and economic expectations. Her expertise is drawn from new research, across fields from neuroscience and evolutionary biology to sociology and cultural history, to reframe the reality of pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood.
Join Lucy Jones in conversation with All About Women 2025 co-curator Michelle Law for a wide-ranging exploration of a culture more focused on ‘having a baby’ than ‘becoming a mother’ and an opportunity to better honour the process of mothering.
Presented by Sydney Opera House
Livestream this event
Can't make it to All About Women in person? Watch this talk live streamed from the Opera House stage directly to your living room.
Lucy Jones (she/her)
Lucy Jones is an award-winning journalist and the author of four books including the bestselling Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild (a Times and Telegraph Book of the Year) and most recently Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, which was longlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and a New Yorker and New Statesman Book of the Year. Her first book, Foxes Unearthed, won the Society of Authors' Roger Deakin Award and was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Her writing on ecology, health and science has been published by BBC Earth, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, GQ and the New Statesman.
Michelle Law (she/her)
host
Michelle Law is a writer and actor – working in print, screen and stage – currently based on Gadigal Land. Her works include the plays, Single Asian Female, Top Coat and Miss Peony; the television shows Homecoming Queens and Safe Home; and the book Asian Girls are Going Places. Her awards include two Australian Writers Guild Awards, the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award, and the Arts & Culture 40 Under 40 Awards, which celebrates the country’s most influential Asian Australians. Michelle is also a widely published freelance author and a prolific speaker who regularly appears on panels and at festivals.
Plan your visit
Venue information
Our foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
All Sydney Opera House foyers are pram accessible, with lifts to the main and western foyers. The public lift to all foyers is accessible from the corridor near the escalators on the Lower Concourse and also in the Western Foyer via the corridor on the Ground Level (at the top of the escalators). Pram parking will be available outside the theatres in the Western Foyer.
Getting here
The Sydney Opera House Car Park, operated by Wilson Parking, is open and available to use. Wilson Parking offer discounted parking if you book ahead. Please see the Wilson Parking website for details.
Please check the Transport NSW website for the latest advice and information on travel. You can catch public transport (bus, train, ferry) to Circular Quay and enjoy a six minute walk to the Opera House.
Frequently asked questions
Ticket purchases and collection at our Box Office is discouraged and eTicket or postal delivery methods should be used, wherever possible. However, if you are collecting your tickets from the Box Office, we recommend doing this at least 60 minutes before the event starts. If you have already received your tickets, the venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Please take your seats as soon as you arrive.
If you are late, we will seat you as soon as we can and, where possible, in your allocated seat. However, to reduce movement in the venue as well as minimise disruption to the performance and other patrons, ticketholders may be seated in an allocated latecomer’s seat. Please be aware that some events have lock-out periods. In these cases, latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance. On occasions, this may not be until the interval, or at all where there is no interval.
Details of our right to refuse admission can be found in our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Events.
In accordance with our venue security procedures, Opera House security will be scanning and checking bags under the Monumental Stairs, prior to entering the building. Bags will be scanned by an x-ray machine, and staff will wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when handling your belongings, such as gloves. Cloaking facilities will be open 60 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 60 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. However it is strongly encouraged that you travel lightly to minimise contact and queuing. Any bags larger than an A4 piece of paper will need to be checked into the Cloak Room.
The authorised agency for this event is the Sydney Opera House.
Only tickets purchased by authorised agencies should be considered reliable. If you purchase tickets from a non-authorised agency such as Ticketmaster Resale, Viagogo, Ticketbis, eBay, Gumtree, Tickets Australia or any other unauthorised seller, you risk that these tickets are fake, void or have previously been cancelled. Resale restriction applies. For more details, please refer to our General Terms and Conditions for Tickets and Attendance at Events.
Please contact Box Office on +61 2 9250 7777 as soon as possible to advise if you can no longer attend.
Foyers will be open 90 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and two hours pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances. Refreshments will be available for purchase from our theatre bars.
The venue doors will be open 45 minutes pre-show for Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre performances, and 30 minutes pre-show for Western Foyer venue performances.
Please bring a credit or debit card for any on site purchases to enable contactless payment. You’re welcome to bring your own water bottle but no other food and drinks are permitted inside our venues.
The health, safety and wellbeing of everyone at the Sydney Opera House is our top priority. In line with this commitment, the Opera House became a smoke-free site in January 2022. Read our Smoke-free Environment Policy.
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