Bonding over tequila slammers, the infamous compere Dougie Brown and a heavenly voice, this tragic-comic tale shows how the girls’ mothers, rightly or wrongly, have influenced their way of life, fed their insecurities, and made them the women they are today.
With the supernatural power to start and stop time with a single clap, four mothers, whether following their offspring to the swimming pool or the loo, tell of their troubled past and their often fraught relationships with their “girls”: jobless but jobbing DIY-er Lisa; Ann – a lesbian trying to juggle being manager at the DSS, her partner Colette, and their joint 3 kids; Frances – a 20 something dinner lady and mum of two, and Sian – the insecure, tactless and middle-class daughter of aspirational harridan Doreen.
Open Clasp’s first production was informed by groups of women in Tyne & Wear and looked at mother/ daughter relationships. The play was showcased at The Live Theatre, Newcastle in 1998 and the response from audiences and funders was so tremendous that Open Clasp Theatre Company was born.
Open Clasp don’t shirk when it comes to tackling issues we’d rather not think about… their strength is that they make realism entertaining and accessible; allowing us to either peek into a worlds we know little about, or one we know only too well – and give some the strength to make changes.
Wonderful and brave. Thank you for portraying women with dignity and respect.
