THE AWARD-winning, sell-out, theatrical phenomenon, Mum’s The Word, an hysterically funny and poignant show on the joys and agonies of parenting starring Twink will take to the stage next week at the Town Hall.
Originally produced in Canada, the play proved to be one of the success stories of the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, and has since sold out theatres across Canada, Australia, and Europe. It was in the spring of 1993 in Vancouver that the show was first conceived. A group of women who had once been exciting, glamorous, and professional actors were now exhausted, bedraggled, amateur mothers with 10 children under six among them. They decided to get together to write a show about motherhood.
They met regularly on Saturday mornings with their children. They talked, they laughed, they whined, they complained, and they laughed some more. Suddenly their first performance was just three weeks away. Although they had nothing on paper, they felt enormously better about their children, their skills as mothers, and their lives in general. They had reinvented group therapy.
Luckily, in the ancient tradition of oral history, they remembered each other’s stories and Mum’s The Word was born. Many years and more than 10,000 performances later, Mum’s The Word has crossed the international dateline and the equator. It has played eight record-breaking British tours and a West End run, and now the award-winning theatrical phenomenon comes direct to Galway from a sell-out Dublin season
The hysterical and, at times, moving play graphically deals with many of the important elements of childrearing; many with which parents will readily identify.
From the daily immersion in bathwater to cleaning off snot, vomit, and bits of food from the floor, ceiling, and favourite clothes, to the struggle to get a full night’s sleep, the play sums up the trials and triumphs of modern parenthood.
Liberating, enlightening, and educating, this hit comedy washes the secret, funny, dirty laundry of motherhood in public for the very first time. The all-star Irish cast features Adele King (Twink ), Flo McSweeney, Neili Conroy, Anna Fox, and Galway’s own Eileen Gibbons.
Mum’s The Word is at the Town Hall from Monday May 18 to Saturday 23 at 8pm nightly - except for Saturday when there are two performances at 6.30pm and 8.30pm. Tickets are €30/€25 from 091 - 569777.
