ONCE WE WERE MOTHERS. To 10 November.
Richmond.
ONCE WE WERE MOTHERS
by Lisa Evans.
Orange Tree Theatre To 10 November 2007.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm & 25 Oct 2.30pm (+discussion).
Runs 2hr 20min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 8940 3633.
www.orangetreetheatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 20 October.
Motherhood that’s not all apple-pie.
Lisa Evans’ adaptations of Victorian novels are among the few to reveal the originals’ underlying themes. So it’s no surprise she skilfully interweaves three stories of ex-motherhood in this play, first seen at Newcastle-under-Lyme’s New Vic in 2004. Of its four mothers, Gwen tries to deprive her daughter, Ali, of satisfaction in her own child, when Flora is born with a damaged heart and Down’s Syndrome.
Elsewhere, Milena is caught up in the 1990s Balkan wars, that tear her children from her and leave her impregnated by rape, while in 1950s Yorkshire Kitty refuses to take part in the Council’s rehousing programme as she waits for her missing daughter to return home.
Each story has its own impact and they combine to show motherhood defined under pressure. Yet they have different levels of impact in Ellie Jones’ production. While fending off Gwen’s dismissal of the ‘imperfect’ Flora might seem little beside Kitty’s grief and Milena’s agony, it somehow emerges as the spine of things.
There are several reasons: it starts the play, Sarah Mowat gives a glowing performance as Ali; patient yet determined, she often speaks with purposeful sense and patience directly to the audience, unlike Kitty and without the veil produced by Milena’s accent. And Flora is played by the one cast-member in common with the New Vic, Sarah Gordy. As a Down’s person, Gordy refutes all Gwen’s patronising distaste for her granddaughter. No wonder the play begins and ends with her dancing.
Milena’s story in Banja Luka, however, necessarily proceeds almost entirely through being recounted, and well though Mairead Carty recounts it there’s not the immediacy of directly-seen events.
And, while Pippa Duffy, smiling, sporty and supportive, movingly shows someone repulsed by her mother for not being the missing daughter returning (in a telling moment, Kitty describes how after being hit the girl always puts furniture between them), the mother here is too monochrome, a generalised picture rather than an individual with a particular grief.
So, close-up, the stories don’t meld the way they did in the play’s premiere. But there remain many strong aspects to this revival.
Ali: Sarah Mowat.
Flora: Sarah Gordy.
Gwen: Ishia Bennison.
Milena: Mairead Carty.
Nevenka: Erin Brodie.
Kitty: Esther Ruth Elliott.
Jeanette: Pippa Duffy.
Doctor/Tajib/Teacher: Finn Hanlon.
Director: Ellie Jones.
Designer: Tim Meacock.
Lighting: Peter Harrison.
Assistant director: Katie Henry.
2007-10-23 09:45:41