We Love Talking
If you have something
you want us to talk about
send us an email.
Editorial
My Mother Said I Never Should, Watford Palace Theatre
WeLoveWatford.co.uk sent a slightly outnumbered Nick Golding to see Watford Palace Theatre's latest production, My Mother Said I Never Should...
“I can relate to Hamlet, Waiting for Godot and Band of Brothers, so I can’t imagine why [men can’t relate to My Mother Said I Never Should]”, explains director Brigid Larmour in the programme notes of a play which closely examines the relationship between mothers and daughters and is performed by four women.
And, when you consider that I was in a theatre heavily populated by women, it is understandable why, on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help feeling a little out of my depth.
I shouldn’t have. Perhaps the female members of the audience could relate to the mother/daughter love and quarrels on a separate level to a man, but My Mother Said I Never Should is a play that is by no means gender exclusive, and though my girlfriend had seen the play dozens of times (compared to my none), and knew sections of the play off-by-heart, as Larmour duly noted: “everyone has a mother”.
I couldn’t describe this play as particularly uplifting, but instead a carefully crafted story that is used to delicately place mother/daughter relationships, across different generations, under the microscope to reveal the countless cracks and chips that are collected along the way.
Tough decisions that life often requires mothers to make, not to mention live by, are showcased by Jackie (played by Claire Brown), who must pass on motherhood, while the constant oppression by the ‘man of the house’ wears down the traditional mother and grandmother Doris (the excellent Eve Pearce). Abigail Thaw and Katherine Manners make up the four-woman act, which performed superbly as a constantly evolving team with smooth transitions between time and character.
Jackie’s emotional speech to her daughter, as hidden family secrets unfold, was fittingly frantic, and one highlight of many.
My Mother Said I Never Should is on at Watford’s Palace Theatre until Saturday 17 October. Book tickets on 01923 225671.
