Review: MY MOTHER’S FUNERAL: THE SHOW, The Yard Theatre
Photo credit: Nicola Young
Abigail’s mum has died. To add to her grief, there’s funeral costs to cover. Who knew funerals are so expensive? With limited help from her brother and without the money to give her mother the dignified funeral she deserves, her mother may have to be buried in an unmarked council plot. When desperate times call for desperate measures, Abigail decides there’s only one option left…to turn her life into a play told through her ‘unique working-class lens”.
My Mother’s Funeral: The Show made its debut last August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to great acclaim. Earlier this year, it was performed at SoHo Playhouse in New York, making the current production at The Yard Theatre its official London transfer.
The set is surprisingly dynamic considering how bare bones it is and it does hide more than a few secrets within. A simple two part raised hexagonal stage sits in the middle, with each layer defined by a strip light around the lower edge. The middle part of the stage piece lowers in the latter part of the play to create a burial pit, which is used instead of a coffin and is very striking, making the set more emotionally evocative than anticipated when walking in. The Yard Theatre is the perfect venue to set this show in considering how base it is and how cold it can get inside the stage space, which really adds an additional layer to the uncomfortable atmosphere of the show.
It must be said that the cast are all incredibly talented at multi-roling, especially given how vastly different all of the characters are and how rapidly a lot of these changes take place. Debra Baker does this particularly skilfully through her performances in the roles of Abigail’s mum, as well as the funeral director and the morgue receptionist. In changing her voice subtly through pace, tone, pitch and accent, she is not only able to create distinct characters but also uses her vocal skills to share character motivations without having to use lines to tell the audience what they are.
Samuel Armfield’s characterisation of the producer as the villain is unnervingly sinister in spite of the excess of charisma he gives this character. We writhe in our seats as he unwittingly turns Abigail’s very real pain into a fantastical, highly-stereotyped image of ‘the working class struggle’. It is almost more painful to watch him misinterpret the play she has written about her mother than to watch Abigail beg her mother’s ghost to haunt her.
The audience is stunned silent as her play, under the influence of the jaded, upper class, white producer becomes bigger and more exaggerated. The version of her mother in the script that the upper class hired actress characterises becomes villainous in a way Abigail never perceived her to be in life. Her struggle to afford the funeral is turned into a form of entertainment and her reality becomes gradually more and more buried by the practicalities and controllers of the theatre industry. The audience is forced to sit and watch. It is absolute agony but in the best way.
In this sense, Kelly Jones’ writing is genius because it forces us to reflect on our own sense of morality and where we draw the line in what we consider and allow to be entertainment. In this case, making a spectacle out of someone else’s suffering and taking away dignity in death by trivialising the reality of a funeral. On a deeper level, it challenges us because it shows us how little our society really values life through the commodification of death, and forces us to have a very rude awakening.
It is worth mentioning that Nicole Sawyer gives an outstanding performance in the role of Abigail. The way she powerfully portrays the multi-layered range of emotions which come from grief, prevents the show from having a one-toned emotional stiffness, which is always a risk given the subject matter. Additionally, it is hard to watch her having to learn first hand about the practicalities of what happens after someone dies due to the lack of preparations that took place whilst her mother was alive. Sudden death can be terrifying but being unprepared and uneducated about death is worse, and Sawyer’s brazen portrayal of this feels like the biggest wake up call. This character has depth and conveys a lived- in quality which only truly dedicated actors can pull off effectively.
Heartbreaking, harrowing, multi-layered and memorable. Though we didn’t leave with the cathartic quality which some audience members have previously described, we left reflecting on our own experiences with the death process. Yes, as a society we do need to start conversations surrounding death and change the hush-hush narrative many of us grew up with. This is a show that incites change and encourages us to genuinely value life more, through its portrayal of a range of fragilities.
As respectful as it is eye opening, this show is brutally honest and very much needed. A beautiful tribute to both those immortal people in our hearts and those who have fallen to the wayside.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Megan O’Neill
