My Mother Said I Never Should (Student Editions)

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There’s a sense of movement for the women – at one point Margaret says to Jackie ‘You’ve got to go further than me – otherwise, what’s it been worth?

The cast of four deftly switch between these time frames, and are convincing both as exuberant kids and careworn women. Content you previously purchased on Oxford Biblical Studies Online or Oxford Islamic Studies Online has now moved to Oxford Reference, Oxford Handbooks Online, Oxford Scholarship Online, or What Everyone Needs to Know®. LK – I play Rosie, she’s the youngest character of the whole show, and she is fun, quite direct, she’s like naïve. The scene where the family sort Doris’ late husband’s house provides a particularly lovely lens through which to explore the relationships of the four women together. Ultimately, she is a woman born late enough to escape her mother’s narrow life but too soon to benefit from the social upheavals of the 60s.

The play focuses on four generations of one family as they confront the most significant moments of their lives. This was another wonderful performance, with an intensity of angry bewilderment at the way of things, attempting to repair relations with her own mother but closing doors on her daughter. If you are looking for audition pieces or an all woman cast for a small group, this is a useful play.

The play details the lives of four women through the immense social changes of the twentieth century. When her own daughter, Jackie, falls pregnant as a teenaged art student and struggles to cope, Margaret brings up granddaughter Rosie as her own, giving Jackie a shot at the kind of career Margaret could only dream of. Okay, so we’ll just remove sign language in education and make everyone talk and learn via listening and talking. Charlotte Keatley’s play, first seen at the Contact Manchester in 1987 when she was in her mid-20s, was a big success that acted as a spur to other female dramatists. Mary Campbell (as Margaret Bradley) represented the next generation, first as the emotionally neglected child and then as wife and mother.

My Mother Said I Never Should has been translated into 22 languages and has earned Keatley the George Devine Award, as well as the Manchester Evening News Award for Best New Play.

But very few women across history wrote plays until the last 50 years, so many conventions about theatre are still those defined by a male point of view, such as what subjects or characters define good plays. Much is left unsaid between the four women, and this gives extra weight to the climactic scene between Jackie and Rosie, when the truth of their relationship is finally revealed and Jackie bares her soul in a heart-breaking desperate speech. The play is rightly highly regarded, being both powerful and moving, and this production was wonderfully acted. From school productions and small scale amateur right up to large scale professional tours and West End shows. It suggests that the generations go round in circles, but that there is always the possibility - if you take the optimistic view - of change.From the onset, Keatley’s targets are the conventions that have given men the power of choice, leaving women to make the biggest sacrifices. However, rather than a play about women and men, this feels like more of a play about mothers and daughters.

Using a kaleidoscopic time structure, Charlotte Keatley examines the lives of four women through the immense social changes of the twentieth century.

Scenes move between the women at different ages and time periods, showing the impact of their choices and expectations on one another across decades. Serena Manteghi is vibrant and animated as the youngest character, and it’s touching to see her grow. The play is nominally set in Greater Manchester and in London, and there are several local references to Hammersmith and Twickenham, as well as to Moss Side, but really the themes and situations are universal.