Robert Tanitch reviews My Mother Said I Never Should at St James Theatre, London SW1
Charlotte Keatley’s play, with a memorable title, written in 1985 when she was 25, was a huge success in Manchester, London and all over the world.
It is the most performed play by a woman writer. It has become an A level exam set text. Schoolgirls love it.
The play deals with the aspirations, disenchantments and sheer pressure on women, their hopes and fears, their frustrations and envy, their lies.
Mothers especially worry a lot. They make big sacrifices and deeply resent it.
The action is spread over four generations from 1940-1987 and concentrates on mother/daughter relationships in particular.
A teenager gets pregnant and hands over her baby girl to her mother to bring up as if it were her own child and she promises that she will tell the girl who her real mother is when she reaches 16.
The action, chronologically complicated, moves backwards and forwards in time. There are just four actors and there are times when they have to behave like children.
Individually, they are absolutely fine when they are acting with mummy or granny. It is when all four of them are being childlike together that it is all a bit am dram, and especially so in the opening scene.
Paul Robinson directs a very good cast – Maureen Lipman, Katie Brayben, Hilary Tones and Serena Manteghi – and it is difficult to imagine Keatley’s play being either better performed or more heartfelt.
To learn more about Robert Tanitch and his reviews, click here to go to his website
