My Mum's a Twat, 3***, London

London.
MY MUM’S A TWAT
by Anoushka Warden.

3***
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1 8AS to 20 January 2018.
Mon-Sat 7pm & 9pm. Mat Sat 3pm.
Runs 1hr 20 mins No interval.

TICKETS: 020 7565 5000
www.royalcourttheatre.com
Review: William Russell 11 January.

And my daughter is a right handful.

Written by the head of press at the Royal Cout this is an entertaining monologue about teenage angst in the face of the awful things parents get up to. Girl, played with great skill by Patsy Ferran, is in her bedroom recalling the awful time she has had with Mum, a once upon a time mover and shaker who got divorced and took up with the Moron, a dreary Canadian, and both have joined a peculiar cult. Girl cannot stand the Moron. The sort of man who when adopting a new name in the Cult changed Colin to Kevin. Nor can she stand the fact that Mum and the Moron are into healing by the laying on of hands and not talking. They have also gone to Canada and that Mum has actually come home but not looked her up on several occasions but gone to the Cult’s English base instead.
Warden’s script is very entertaining, reads well on the page, and her portrait of what it is like to be a teenager hits home, although she is lucky in her actor as Ferran really does put all those conflicting feelings across perfectly . Maybe Mum and the Moron, not to mention the rest of her siblings – Dad has children by a previous – are a little shadowy but this is Girl’s revenge on the world,

She is quite clearly as tough as they come – a little bit bruised and damaged by having to confront growing up and grown ups - and able by the end to realise that twat or not Mum was no worse than any other Mum, even if she was not there for her all of the time.

It could have been a case of in-house favouritism getting the chance to be staged here, but it is far from being that – the play works,

Girl: Patsy Ferran.
Director: Vicky Featherstone & Jude Christian.
Designer: Chloe Lamford.
Lighting Designer: Steven Binks.
Music & sound Designer: Duramaney Kamara.
Costume Supervisor: Lucy Walshaw.

2018-01-11 14:34:52