How To Survive Your Mother, King’s Head Theatre Review
John Wark in How To Survive Your Mother. Photo by Charles Flint Photography
Reviewed by Bronagh for Theatre and Tonic
Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in exchange for an honest review
Content warnings: Scenes containing offensive language and physical and emotional abuse. Themes include suicide, serious physical and mental illness, death and anti-Semitism
How to Survive Your Mother is the stage adaptation of playwright Jonathan Maitland’s 2007 memoir of the same name. It takes us from Maitland’s childhood and him witnessing his mother feign illness purely for attention from paramedics, up until adulthood. In the middle of these scenes we move into present day, where Maitland has discussions with his on stage wife and later therapist, in a moving yet at times laugh out loud funny show.
How to Survive Your Mother, as you would probably guess from the title, explores a rather bizarre mother-son relationship. We hear how Maitland was sent to boarding school when he was only three years old, how his mum (played by Emma Davies) would fake terminal illnesses and lie about having cancer when she had, in fact, had a facelift. Hardly a normal relationship! Maitland appears as himself in several scenes, passive on the sidelines but also in scenes where he interacts with Davies also acting as his wife. This is an aspect I really enjoyed; some may wonder why would he appear in a play exploring his own trauma night after night and exposing himself, but truly who better to appear in the show that the subject themselves.
I really enjoyed the concept and direction, by Oliver Dawe, overall. The subject of ‘motherhood’ is always one that draws interest; just look at Oedipus and how that has been around for centuries upon centuries. On the face of it, it isn’t a complicated show and I found it very easy to follow. I never once found myself bored, instead intrigued as to what The Mother would do or lie about next. The set wasn’t overwhelming, instead using cage type contraptions to hold props and also moved around to become, for example, a bed. There is no need to overcomplicate a show that is already full to the brim of mother-son complexities and difficulties associated with the relationship. The subplot and framing device of Jonathan Maitland being the playwright who is writing the play about his mother maybe could have been beefed out slightly, but this wasn’t detrimental to my enjoyment of the play.
Emma Davies dazzles as The Mother, Bru. We’re not there to diagnose her with any mental illness that she may or may not have had; the character we are presented with is clearly extremely complex with her own vulnerable streak. As an audience, we don’t really understand her. I doubt that she really understood herself either. Davies’ portrayal is fantastic, a force in leopard print. One of the roles played by John Wark is that of Bru’s husband and Jonathan’s dad in a role which showed him as exasperated by Bru’s behaviour and misdemeanours particularly in a birthday party scene which culminates in Bru purposely crashing her car. Having a father character present was quite interesting, particularly when we meet him again when Jonathan is an adult, and he alludes to perhaps being more complicit in Bru’s schemes than we initially thought.
How to Survive Your Mother was as enjoyable as I expected it to be from the get go. The plot is intriguing and kept me hooked throughout. As a new show, there are understandably some aspects which could do with some cleaning up, and I have no doubt that this show will absolutely flourish throughout the run.
At the Kings Head Theatre until 24th November 2024
★★★★
