My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

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The story progresses, not in chronological sequence, but through a succession of contrasts: adult with child, mother with daughter, daughter with mother. My Mother Said I Never Should was first performed at the Contact Theatre, Manchester, in 1987, and won both the Royal Court/George Devine Award and the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best New Play. 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. However, rather than a play about women and men, this feels like more of a play about mothers and daughters.

During the clearing of a site for travellers Councillor Knox was seriously assaulted leaving him blind in one eye and with a punctured lung - both permanent injuries. eel the dialogue is not as clear and straightorward as the re%elance o the phsycological tensions between each character is predominates. And then on top of that we are adding access for audiences, so we have captions on the screen, and we’ve certain scenes which are live performed just in sign language but will have a voice recording playing at the same time. o the most unrealistic things in the play is the wasteground scenes where al l characters become children. Margaret says at one point that ‘You do what’s best for your daughter, and you find out it’s not what she wanted, or needed’ – a thought millions of mothers have had.The great thing is that when we become aware of the choices we’ve made, we can change them if we want.

The added bonus is the audience’s murmuring sounds of shared experience when many of Doris’s lines unlock memories of the past.JD – I’ve staged it with 3 Deaf actors and 1 hearing actor - and within that company we have profoundly Deaf, sign language user - EJ, and we have 2 Deaf actresses who both sign and speak.

Doris Lipman is superb as Maureen, showing grit, humour and strength of character even as she is constrained by conventions. Elizabeth Holland, travelling incidentally from Todmorden, is to be congratulated for bringing this special play so vividly to life. Keatley also pins down the secrets and lies, to borrow a phrase film-maker Mike Leigh was later to use, that pervade family life.t is also about how the dierent generations brea ree rom their parents6 traditions and culture. The bond of mother-daughter has been stretched to the limit, I think, by changes in women’s lives that are far greater than those in men’s lives in the past 100 years. In a society where we are more disconnected from one another than ever before, we should be all the more grateful for such a reminder of the inextricable links that connect us to our roots.

Margaret6s attempts to try and mae 4acie see the truth in her eyes o the situation anbd how and what is she going to tell her dad this news. Her crying in the baby scene in the flat where her mother is saying goodbye and Rosie watches and cries was spine-chillingly good.

oris understands Margaret6s distress and attempts to hold 4acie but 4acie runs away and -oris6 rustration with Margaret pre%ails stating that i she hadn6t be so hasty to get a temping ob she would ne%er ha%e lost the baby.