This smart satire from Kelly Jones follows Abigail (Nicole Sawyerr), a struggling young working class playwright whose mum has just died. The cost of the funeral her mum wanted is £4,000 - which Abigail can in no way afford, not least because the Royal Court-coded theatre she was under commission for to write a play about gay termites in space (!) has decided to back out. But the theatre’s smarmy artistic director suggests they might be more receptive if she can come up with something closer to her ‘authentic’ debut play.
‘My Mother’s Funeral’ isn’t so much about funerals as it is working class dignity. On the one hand, Abigail has an easy way out of her bind: allow the council to handle things. But she won’t, because she sees it as a ‘pauper’s funeral’ and because she loved her mum and they had a discussion once about what type of funeral she’s like and Abigail wants to honour that.
On the other hand, there’s a ludicrously complicated way out: the theatre isn’t interested in her original ideas but is extremely excited about the prospect of her stripmining her roots for more material. In a desperate effort to extract some money out of them to pay for the funeral, she proposes to belittle herself by writing a play… about her mum’s (hypothetical) funeral, attempting to bounce the theatre into commissioning it before her 14 days to release the body from the morgue are up.
The fundamentals of Jones’s play are very strong, as is Sawyerr’s performance as the dazed Abigail - heartbreakingly proud, but also fundamentally quite amusing as she bemusedly tries to negotiate the impossible situation.
Where Charlotte Bennett’s production falls down a bit is the uneven tone. Despite abundant satirical flourishes, ‘My Mother’s Funeral: The Show’ never really embraces being a comedy, which leaves some of the details feeling jarringly goofy - the speed with which Abigail gets her play taken up by the theatre is profoundly unlikley, while the whole thing about termites in space is, you know… It also feel like there’s a meta aspect to it – the idea that we’re now watching the play – that gets enticingly floated by the title but never comes to fruition. I’m not saying it has to be played as farce. It just feels unrealised in places.
That goes for short Fringe-friendly running time, which particularly feel like it stiffs the character of Abigail’s brother Darren (Samuel Armfield, who also plays the oleaginous theatre boss). He could do with a little meat on his bones, especially in terms of describing his difficult relationship with their mum.
I’m possibly being a bit harsh on an ambitious, entertaining and provocative play. But truly, it’s only because I think the current incarnation of ‘My Mother’s Funeral: The Show’ is selling it a splash short – it’s good, but there’s something truly special bubbling under the surface.