My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

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The plot is simple – we have Doris, born in Oldham in 1900, her daughter, Margaret who inherits some of her work and duty values but is some more freedom, her daughter, Jackie, who has an unplanned pregnancy in 1969, and hands her baby daughter, Rosie, to her mother to bring up as her own. The play is an intriguing and illuminating look at four generations of women from the same family and their interactions with each other, over a 70 year period. hough they are each connected by amily resemblances each character relects their own indi%idual hopes and epectations and it is a play about how women relate to men and also at dierent times2 to be a wie and a mother. Their loves, expectations and choices, are against the huge social changes of the twentieth century. The enduring popularity of Charlotte Keatley’s 1987 play – which is frequently revived around the world – is perhaps in its perceptive portrayal of how bad families can be at communicating.

Carole Dance as Doris, the eventual great-grandmother, gives an emotionally affecting study of a great arc of experience, from motivated adolescence, to blissful falling in love, through duty, disappointment and resentment, to something much nearer contentment in the company of the youngest of the family. It also has the benefits of being produced by London Classic Theatre - an established touring company of a very high standard.Then there is the challenge to the actors of having to play themselves at different ages from pre-teen upwards. It’s easy to see why the National Theatre ranked it as one of the most significant plays of the twentieth century in 2000, and despite it being the most performed play ever written by a female playwright, Paul Robinson’s direction and Tara Finley’s production keeps it fresh. A very clever set and I really enjoyed the junk piano for Margaret’s first scene practicing under her mother’s austere and disapproving watch. Despite the junkyard, or what Set Designer Bek Palmer describes as “the wasteland”, initially seeming an odd decision, the rusted and discarded backdrop ultimately pays off and the abstract space fits with each scene and the play as a whole. What’s encouraging is how Vicki Featherstone at the Royal Court, David Grieg at Edinburgh Lyceum, Brigid Larmour at Watford, Sarah Frankcom at the Royal Exchange and many others such as the National Theatres of Scotland and Wales, find and stage great plays by women with parts for women – and men – which smash the old stereotypes.

While Hartley admits punching Knox - whom he claims had betrayed the travellers - he denies causing the more serious injuries for which. LK – I play Rosie, she’s the youngest character of the whole show, and she is fun, quite direct, she’s like naïve. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). The scenes that follow explore the four characters’ lives and relationships over a span of about 60 years.E i gh t ee n yea r s l a t e r t h e pl ay, a l t h o u g h ve r y m u ch of i t s e r a , n eve r co m e s a cr os s a s a pe r i od p i e ce ; u n d e r t h e d i r e ct i o n o f S a r a h P u n sh o n t h i s st o r y o f m o t h e r / d a u g h t e r r e l a t i o n sh i p s, p l ay e d o u t a g a i n st t h e ba ckd r op o f w om en ' s e m an ci pa t i on , i s as t o uch i ng an d f un ny a s eve r . Cabot notes how “patterns of behaviour ripple down” the generations and this repetition of rebellious daughter against old-fashioned mother is captured perfectly by the company. In 1969, Margaret’s relationship with her own daughter is strained, as art student Jackie experiments with her new found sexual freedom.

LK – Yeah, and I think with hearing people, they would probably like portray via the tone of voice and with volume and things like that but because we’re deaf and we rely on visuals of everything that we like play in a visual way - more than hearing people.It's about debts and responsibilities; the grim burden of puritan inheritance; and how it takes generations to learn about the value of real feeling. In the end, of course, the truth will out, leading to more conflict and, particularly from Act 2, the play becomes more engrossing as it starts to become clear what has been happening.