DramaFeaturedLondonReview

My Mother’s Funeral – Yard Theatre, London

Reviewer: Nilgün Yusuf

Writer: Kelly Jones

Director: Charlotte Bennett

Abigail’s mother is dead. No spoilers – it’s in the title. Abigail, young, gifted, black and gay works in the local chippy in Dagenham. She’s also an aspiring playwright but her first script, about gay bugs in space, isn’t what the Artistic Director of her local theatre is after. He wants “authentic” and “gritty”, especially from someone like Abigail. Dented ego aside, her pressing concern is she can’t afford to bury her mother.

Our protagonist, captivatingly performed by Nicole Sawyerr, transmits a frail vulnerability and jittery energy. She also delivers killer asides from a script that brims with wicked wit and sharp observation. As she attempts to navigate the hospital mortuary, funeral packages, banks and loan companies, the clock ticks ever closer to a council funeral: ergo, “a pauper’s grave.” When Abigail realises she’s sitting on dramatic gold and starts to write a play about Stacey – from the hood – who can’t afford to bury her mum, she hopes this will finally unlock her commissioning fee and get the funds she needs. And the gatekeepers and thesps are delighted with this “brutal” and “devastating” piece of dramatic art. But her geezer bruv, Darren, played by Samuel Armfield, is having none of it.

If it all sounds a bit meta, a bit clever and self-referential, well it is and this is the beauty of My Mother’s Funeral. As the action cuts back and forth between Abigail’s lived experience and the performed interpretation, back and forth between conversations with her salt-of-the-earth mother, memorably characterised by Debra Baker and those with Darren who has very different memories of their parent, between spoken word segments of lyrical prose and flat, financial or bureaucratic demands, the tension becomes tauter, the texture richer and the meaning fuller. Deftly directed by Charlotte Bennett, the pace doesn’t slack once in 70 minutes of fast and furious comedy and pathos.

My Mother’s Funeral, produced by Paine’s Plough, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and Mercury Theatre Colchester, says so much about what it means to be working class and poor. It draws our attention to the inequalities played out in death as they are in life. But it also shines a light on the pressures placed on artists to mine their own traumas for a foothold in the industry. A massive great spotlight is placed on the conceits of theatre companies peopled by those whose lives are often planets away from the “authentic” stories chosen for commodification and entertainment. And it questions what is lost in this process and what is gained. A fierce exploration from a brave new talent, My Mother’s Funeral is truly a class act.

Runs until 15 February 2025

The Reviews Hub Score

A Class Act

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The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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