My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

£5.495
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My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

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Price: £5.495
£5.495 FREE Shipping

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When Jackie falls pregnant as an unmarried university student, she is unable to care for the baby and hands her over to her mother Margaret to raise as her own. Charlotte Keatley’s play, first seen at the Contact Manchester in 1987 when she was in her mid-20s, was a big success that acted as a spur to other female dramatists.

It’s really about the Larkin truism that “they f*** you up your mum and dad, they may not mean to but they do… ’ but it improves it. Artistic Director of LCT, Michael Cabot directs Felicity Houlbrooke (Rosie Metcalfe), Carole Dance* (Doris Partington), Kathryn Ritchie (Jackie Metcalfe) and Connie Walker (Margaret Bradley). heir lo%es2 epectations2 and choices are set against the huge social changes o the twentieth century. We've included versions from countries all over the world, including Mexico, Japan, Thailand and, of course, France. Since its premiere in 1987 it has been produced in over 30 countries and garnered Keatley an Olivier Award nomination for most promising newcomer.SA – Obviously the play has already been in previews, I wonder what audiences have made of the play and what feedback you’ve both been getting from them?

The action starts in wartime with Doris, a former teacher, seeking to instil the virtues of hard work and verbal precision in her nine-year-old daughter, Margaret. In a deeply resonant line, Margaret, by taking charge of Jackie’s baby, tells her daughter: “You’ve got to go further than me – otherwise, what’s it been worth? Very simply, Doris, born in 1900 to an unmarried mother, is instilled with a sense of dutiful subservience and self-sacrifice. The performers skilfully navigate Keatley’s nonlinear chronology, but Draper’s production somewhat clunkily indicates the shifts in time with era-appropriate album covers shown on a screen above the stage – for the Sex Pistols and Madonna – accompanied by the corresponding music.They show disgust for the idea of little girls being made of 'sugar and spice and all things nice' and then put forth the idea of 'killing their Mummy'. The story presents Doris, the eldest of the four, looking after her daughter Margaret during the air raids of World War Two, Margaret’s struggling relationship with her artistic daughter Jackie which creates a lifetime’s worth of bitterness, and Jackie’s teenage pregnancy with Rosie catalysing several consequences for all four of the women. So it’s quite a challenge to play the young character, then up to the mature character, but it’s a fun character to play. The cast of four deftly switch between these time frames, and are convincing both as exuberant kids and careworn women.

The set is that of a wasteland - where the children play and can freely act out their fantasies away from their parents in an environment which they would see as slightly dangerous and exciting - and this then doubles up as various other locations such as a flat, a garden, an office and a hospital (a wooden pallet becomes a piano and later an office desk, for example) located in either Manchester, Oldham or London. And this edition is extra special because of the wonderful commentary on the text, historical context, playwriting -- all by Keatley herself.I love this play and studied it at A level and it left a mark on my heart for its exploration of female roles and changes in social structure across the 20th century. Margaret (20) tells Doris (51) that she is going to marry an American Air Force pilot, live in London, and have a career. The set design (Dee Harvey) deserves acclaim too – a mass of clutter behind all the action – how appropriate as a representation of these lives! The pain of being unable to mother her daughter was evinced with painful clarity, as was the desire to make everything right. Then there is the challenge to the actors of having to play themselves at different ages from pre-teen upwards.

It’s a timeless and universal play and, unbelievably, it’s the most performed play ever by a female playwright. The action takes place in Manchester, Oldham and London, moving in time between the 1920s and the 1980s. Katie Brayben, Olivier Award winner last year for her performance as Carole King in Beautiful, plays Jackie, and manages to portray a wild child of the sixties to a mother parted from her daughter and the complexities of changing emotions and relationships. As the story progressed she got younger, more accepting and became the haven for young Rosie to flee to for acceptance and understanding.Each generation (born between 1900 and 1971) deals with their own issues, be it a wife in an apparently loveless marriage, a family member who has to make a decision between a career and motherhood or the innocence of a child who is not being told the truth. Judith Paris’s Doris initially seems to be a fearsome and detached matriarch when raising her reluctant pianist daughter Margaret. This is a beautifully acted, absorbing and very thought-provoking evening that succeeds in landing quite an emotional impact.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
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