How much would a man know about the inner female psyche of pregnancy and giving birth? Quite a lot if Toby Litt is anything to go by. Zoe Knighton tells Limelight about Life Cycle, a song cycle featuring Litt’s lyrics and music by Emily Hall, being performed in Melbourne on Saturday ahead of Mother’s Day.

When did you first hear the song cycle Life Cycle and what impact did it have on you?

I first heard it back in 2012 in a program curated by Mira Calix. It was just one song but when I first heard I am alone it hit me right in the solar plexus emotionally. Probably because I had just had my first child, and to have a piece of music that articulated every one of my feelings at that moment, to be honest, was a little disturbing.

What does the cycle cover?

It tracks the intense anticipation and anxiety of pregnancy through to those glorious first sleep-deprived weeks. We start with stillborn which has a soft devastation, through to the hopeful I test myself and onwards to the endless We are counting which plays like a child’s counting game in rhythmical games. After the incredibly simple Hello as we...