Writer: Deborah Unger
Don’t be fooled by the flippant-sounding title; this solo show is heartfelt. Deborah recounts episodes from a rootless childhood with a father in the US military and an abrasive, unfriendly mother.
In the show Deborah is sometimes playing herself at various ages and sometimes she dons a large pair of glasses and plays her mom. There are also times when the mother’s voice is heard through the sound system. Even more pervasively, she points out that she “lives on” in her daughter’s head. That’s presumably why this difficult relationship still matters so many years after her death and why Deborah’s chosen to share her memories in this show.
The story is mostly but not strictly chronological, with some out-of-sequence digressions that help to maintain the urgency of the drama. Deborah’s mother is tight-lipped about her background and especially about a first marriage that is discovered purely by accident.
Deborah describes repeatedly having to journey from New York City to the family bungalow in Oklahoma to deal with family crises. Ultimately she starts to appreciate her mom, not for the fact of her being dead but because aspects of her life and personality seem to make better sense with the passage of time. She was a stubborn person, we’re told, but part of that was her unwillingness to live within the societal restrictions placed on women in the 1950s and 1960s.
Runs until 29 August 2026 (not 16 or 23) | Image: Contributed
