NEW! Reviews for My Mother Said I Never Should
The Stage - 8 Feb 2010
Twenty-five years after Charlotte Keatley found it almost impossible for anyone prepared to stage her all-female drama about the “ordinary” lives of four generations of women, this still stands as one of the most finely crafted works in recent British drama.
Perhaps the problem was the non-linear, non-chronological storyline, or perhaps it was the fact that the nearest any male member of the proceedings gets is sitting unseen offstage in a car or kitchen. Thanks then to Brigid Larmour at Manchester’s Contact Theatre in 1987 for starting its ball rolling and thanks now to Amy Leach for an inspired revival which takes full advantage of those elements which were once so scorned.
From air raids to art school, birth pills to post-punk, through myths and motherhood, the four generations share and pass on wisdom in what becomes a full circle of life and death. As the quartet of women, Lorna Beckett (as Jackie - a teenager by the late sixties), Josie Daxter (Rosie - reaching her teens as Margaret Thatcher was elected for her third term as prime minister), Anne Kavanagh (Doris - the grande dame of the dynasty who sacrificed the most to be a “housewife”) and Christine Mackie (Margaret - determined to “have it all” in post-war Britain) all criss-cross from innocence to experience in a timescale which sees women emerge from the wreckage of the last world war to the uncertainties of the present day - each generation in turn teaching and learning from the next.
It’s still so powerful, poignant and unmissable.
Robin Duke
Opposing Lancaster City Council's proposed £20,000 cut to The Dukes
A message from The Dukes Director, Joe Sumsion:
Lancaster City Council has given notice that it intends to cut The Dukes funding by just under £20,000 from April next year. This follows a £20,000 cut last year. If this happens it will have a major impact on local people, giving us no option but to increase prices for youth theatre members and charge commercial rates to community groups who use our spaces. The proposed cut will also jeopardise our core funding from Arts Council England and Lancashire County Council as well as our ability to attract additional funds. If this happens it will be very damaging for the organisation, affecting not just our audiences and employees but also the many local businesses benefiting from our recent success.
The Dukes will vigorously oppose this proposed cut. To assist us, we would like you and others who understand the value of The Dukes to the community to write to your local councillor or to Councillor Stuart Langhorn, Leader of the Council, to express your views. I hope you will be willing and able to do this.
Please make your voice heard by writing to your local city councillor. I would also be grateful if you could copy your letter to me here at The Dukes by email – jsumsion@dukes-lancaster.org – or by post or present it to one of our staff next time you visit. We will collect all contributions and forward them to the City Council Consultation Officer on your behalf. With your consent, we may also include your support on our website and in campaign materials. We value any support you are able to give.
Joe Sumsion, Director.
CONTACT DETAILS FOR YOUR LOCAL COUNCILLORS
UPDATE JAN 2010 - SOME LETTERS FROM SUPPORTERS
RESULTS OF THE CITY COUNCIL SPENDING SURVEY
