Molière-winning French playwright Florian Zeller was the toast of London in 2015 when a translated version of his play The Father galvanised critics at Bath Ustinov, then Kilburn's Tricycle Theatre, then the West End. (Now, thanks to popular demand,The Father has scored yet another London run).
Though not officially a companion piece to The Father, Zeller's play The Mother revolves around similarly disquieting themes and is already poised to emulate its success as it transfers from Bath to the Tricycle.
Instead of dementia, the play examines the equally alienating effect of depression. In a haze of numbing alcohol, Anne mourns the happy times when her children were small, her husband was loyal and everybody needed her. Now her children have grown up and left home and Anne's loneliness grows to paranoia. Is her son's girlfriend taunting her? Is her husband having an affair?
BAFTA winning stage and screen actor Gina McKee (Our Friends in the North, Notting Hill) gave an 'utterly haunting' performance as Anne in Bath and reprises the role for the London run.
Though reportedly this portrayal of a woman on the edge doesn't have quite the same heart-stopping impact as the helplessness of old age in The Father, it still won a cluster of four star reviews.
Zeller is fast becoming just as feted here as in his native France and we predict another West End transfer. So book to see The Mother now, in the intimacy of the Tricycle (for fringe prices).
Though not officially a companion piece to The Father, Zeller's play The Mother revolves around similarly disquieting themes and is already poised to emulate its success as it transfers from Bath to the Tricycle.
Instead of dementia, the play examines the equally alienating effect of depression. In a haze of numbing alcohol, Anne mourns the happy times when her children were small, her husband was loyal and everybody needed her. Now her children have grown up and left home and Anne's loneliness grows to paranoia. Is her son's girlfriend taunting her? Is her husband having an affair?
BAFTA winning stage and screen actor Gina McKee (Our Friends in the North, Notting Hill) gave an 'utterly haunting' performance as Anne in Bath and reprises the role for the London run.
Though reportedly this portrayal of a woman on the edge doesn't have quite the same heart-stopping impact as the helplessness of old age in The Father, it still won a cluster of four star reviews.
Zeller is fast becoming just as feted here as in his native France and we predict another West End transfer. So book to see The Mother now, in the intimacy of the Tricycle (for fringe prices).
| What | The Mother, Tricyle Theatre |
| Where | Kiln Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR | MAP |
| Nearest tube | West Hampstead (underground) |
| When |
21 Jan 16 – 05 Mar 16, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM |
| Price | £14 - £28 |
| Website | Click here to book via Tricycle Theatre website |
