Royal Court Theatre – until 19 August 2023
Reviewer Alec Legge
4****
The play is set in an ordinary home in Birkenhead. It is the home of Doreen, Sue Jenkins. The set consists of a dining room separated by a wall with a hatch through which we can see a kitchen and to the left we can see stairs leading to the first floor.
The play opens with Doreen, her daughter Carmel, Michelle Butterly, and Carmel’s 17 year old daughter Meghan, Emma Harrison, who is making her professional debut, sitting at the dining room table absorbed with their phones. Then follows an interval with them interacting with their phones until the second daughter Sarah, Jodie McNee, who brings in their supper of fish and chips. Then follows a period of dialogue, with typically humorous Birkenhead/Liverpudlian repartee.
This repartee is a feature of the play which the audience obviously appreciated and produced many laughs.
The play goes on at a fast pace involving the characters love lives, their interaction with each other and particularly the breakdown of the relationship between Carmel and her daughter Meghan.
In it’s way this play is a typical domestic comedy portrayal of a Merseyside family which addresses the modern fixation with mobile phones, the somewhat dysfunctional interaction of family members and the relationship between a mother and daughter.
This is a funny play and worth seeing if you are a fan of this genre.