A rollercoaster of laughs, shock, outlandish behaviour and at times sadness
From writer Jonathan Maitland, his new play How to Survive Your Mother is about a complex mother-son relationship. We follow a story about Jonathan and his life with a difficult mother and seeking comfort in writing a play about his past.
The play follows Jonathan and his mother, who has adopted a different name to escape her true self and who seeks to present them as a higher status than they are. We see Jonathan and his struggles with boarding school and his mother telling him and her husband that “English boarding school is the best education in the world” much to the reluctance of her husband having to pay for education when they can get it for free. We see the vindictive side of his mother when she stages her husband’s adultery and the breakup of their family, only to remarry the investigator that was hired by the mother.
Jonathan, as an adult is a journalist, who catches wind of a scandal that seems to involve his parents, with each blaming each other for the idea. When he confronts his mother, the truth comes out.
The staging whilst simple – a white background and foreground with five metal cubes on wheels, storing props for the actors – allows you to focus on the play. The use of sound effects to crash into one timeline to another (as we jump from past to present) as well as sound effects to bring a scene to life, such as a car horn when his mother has a car crash, are well executed. The lighting is vibrant and really adds to certain scenes – like when his mother is striking a series of poses or when they are in a club.
The cast all gave energetic performances, with each actor playing several roles, effortlessly putting on a different item of costume and transitioning into a different character and at times, using different props to take the audience to a different location and different time period.
With the play being largely based on a real story, there are some heartfelt moments amongst the humour of a scandal-loving attention-seeking mother. There are many larger-than-life moments which seem so outlandish that they are funny.
How to Survive Your Mother certainly makes you question what it takes to be a good parent, especially when you have grown up with chaotic parents and Jonathon writes compassionately about his mother and their toxic dynamic. It has relatable moments, and some shocking moments which can both make you laugh and make you feel uncomfortable.