So, we’ve had to make some adaptations like that – which has been quite fun, and Charlotte’s been well up for all of those. A: Charlotte Keatley Pf: 1987, Manchester Pb: 1988 G: Drama in 3 acts S: Manchester, Oldham, and London, 1940–87 C: 4fThe play focuses on four generations of mothers and daughters: Doris Partington, born 1900; Margaret Bradley; born 1931; Jackie Metcalfe, born 1952; Rosie Metcalfe, born 1971. Carole Dance as Doris, the eventual great-grandmother, gives an emotionally affecting study of a great arc of experience, from motivated adolescence, to blissful falling in love, through duty, disappointment and resentment, to something much nearer contentment in the company of the youngest of the family. Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should starts with intensity and never lets up in Michael Cabot’s new touring production. In all three scenes in the play, there is a feeling of suppression of emotions together with feelings of duty, responsibility and social issues.

Using a kaleidoscopic time structure, Charlotte Keatley examines the lives of four women through the immense social changes of the twentieth century. JD – I’ve staged it with 3 Deaf actors and 1 hearing actor - and within that company we have profoundly Deaf, sign language user - EJ, and we have 2 Deaf actresses who both sign and speak. Lastly, Rosie, played by Rebecca Birch gave the lighter, younger element to the women, portraying a youthful Rosie who is only 16 at the end of the play.Katie Brayben, Olivier Award winner last year for her performance as Carole King in Beautiful, plays Jackie, and manages to portray a wild child of the sixties to a mother parted from her daughter and the complexities of changing emotions and relationships. Very simply, Doris, born in 1900 to an unmarried mother, is instilled with a sense of dutiful subservience and self-sacrifice. We've included versions from countries all over the world, including Mexico, Japan, Thailand and, of course, France.

There’s a buoyant hopefulness to Lisa Kelly’s Rosie, who wants to change the world, while Ali Briggs’s schoolmarmish Doris slowly softens as she ages. My Mother Said I Never Should premiered in 1987 at the Contact theatre in Manchester and was subsequently presented in 1989 at the Royal Court Theatre in London. However, rather than a play about women and men, this feels like more of a play about mothers and daughters. A very clever set and I really enjoyed the junk piano for Margaret’s first scene practicing under her mother’s austere and disapproving watch.The play suggests that, while it’s incredibly hard, we can break the generational cycles of abuse in which we become trapped.