St. James Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA
Wednesday 13th April – Saturday 21st May 2016
Press night: Monday 18th April, 7pm
National treasure Maureen Lipman (Oklahoma, Outside Edge, See How They Run) and Olivier-award winning Katie Brayben (Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, King Charles III, American Psycho) will lead the cast in Charlotte Keatley’s My Mother Said I Never Should. They will be joined by Caroline Faber (The Taming of the Shrew, The Heiress, Hangover Square) and Serena Manteghi (The Railway Children). Presented by Tiny Fires Ltd. this is the first London revival of the play in over 25 years.
On this exciting casting, Director Paul Robinson says, I am delighted to be working with Maureen for the first time. I am, of course, well-aware of her huge body of work and have been thrilled by her performances on various occasions. We have really enjoyed talking about the play and role and I'm so excited by her approach to it. Be ready for a highly original take on the part of Doris with humour, humanity and huge depth.
My Mother Said I Never Should is a non-linear play where, at times, all four generations of women appear together, timeless and ageless. The visual language of this production embraces this expressionism in a radical, contemporary and explosive new production.
Robinson treats the piece as a memory play looking at how our recollections of the same events in our own families differ so wildly. My Mother Said I Never Should is a moving exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters and the consequences of breaking the most sacred taboo of motherhood.
2016 has been dubbed as ‘the year of the female playwright’ and there is ongoing fierce debate around roles for women on stage; Keatley’s four strong female protagonists enact the huge social and political changes of the past 100 years.
Keatley comments, I wrote this play to explore how to live, work, love and raise children - and the dilemmas are exactly the same we are wrestling with now. 25 years later it is still incredibly unusual to see women protagonists like these. What moves me most is that teenagers today love this play as much as older audiences. Above all I wanted to make people laugh, cry and be inspired. I get letters from people across the world saying how the play changed their lives.
My Mother Said I Never Should is about the choices we make which determine the course of our lives and how it is never too late to change. Looking at the social and professional place of women, it explores the belief that being a mother is at odds with being a professional success. This is a powerful story of love and jealously between mothers and daughters told through the stories of four generations of women.
Notes to Editors
| Title: |
My Mother Said I Never Should
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| Performance Dates |
Wednesday 13th April – Saturday 21st May 2016, 7.30pm
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| Running time |
2 hrs 30mins (including interval)
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| Location |
St. James Theatre, 12 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JA
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| Box Office |
Tickets are available from www.stjamestheatre.co.uk or 0844 264 2140 from £15.
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| How to get there |
St. James Theatre is located a couple of minutes’ walk from Victoria station. The other nearest underground stations are Victoria (on the District, Circle and Victoria lines), Hyde Park Corner (on the Piccadilly line) and St James’s Park (on the Circle and District lines). The nearest rail station is Victoria.
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@tinyfiresltd, @St_JamesTheatre, #MotherSaid
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| Website |
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| Writer | Charlotte Keatley |
| Director | Paul Robinson |
| Designer | Signe Beckmann |
| Lighting Designer | Johanna Town |
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Composer Video Designer
Cast Jackie Margaret Doris Rosie |
Simon Slater Timothy Bird
Katie Brayben Caroline Faber Maureen Lipman Serena Manteghi |
Katie Brayben
Katie trained at Rose Bruford. Theatre Includes: Beautiful -The Carole King Musical (Aldwych Theatre), King Charles III (Almeida and Wyndham’s Theatres), American Psycho (Almeida Theatre), Joking Apart (Nottingham and Salisbury Playhouse), Ragtime The Musical, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Regent’s Park Theatre), 13 (National Theatre), John and Jen (Landor), Friday 4pm (Arcola Theatre), Company (Southwark Playhouse), Is Everyone OK? (nabakov and NuWrite), Counted? (UK tour), The Great British Country Fete (Bush), Skin Tight (Riverside Studios), Mamma Mia! (Ten year anniversary cast and International Tour and West End), Return To The Forbidden Planet (UK tour), Some Girls are Bigger Than Others (Lyric Hammersmith/Dublin Theatre Festival). Television Includes: Vera (ITV). Short Films: This Way Out, This Love. Awards: For Beautiful – The Carole King Musical; Winner Best Actress in a Musical Olivier Award 2015; Nominated for What’s On Stage Award Best Actress in a Musical; Nominated for Evening Standard Award – Best Musical Performance; Nominated for Evening Standard Radio 2 award for Best Musical and What’s On Stage Award – Best New Musical; John and Jen - Offie nomination for Best Female Performance.
Caroline Faber
Caroline's theatre credits include Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew (RSC) Lady Capulet in Rob Icke's Romeo and Juliet (Headlong), Title Role in Piaf (Bolton Octagon), Goneril in Rupert Goold's King Lear (Headlong), Netta in Hangover Square (Finborough), Rebecca in Keepers of the Flame (Live Theatre/RSC), Nina in Life For Beginners (Theatre503), The Witch Pricker in Here Lies Mary Spindler (RSC at Latitude) Annie in The Norman Conquests (Birmingham Rep), Sin/Raphael in Paradise Lost (Headlong), Leah in Last Easter (Birmingham Rep), Hen in Tender (Hampstead
Theatre), Freda in Dangerous Corner (Garrick Theatre), The Countess of Salisbury in Edward III and Emilia in The Malcontent (RSC), Charlotte Salomon in Life or Theatre (Soho Theatre), Maggie 3 in Mill on The Floss (Shared Experience), Sarah in The End of the Affair (Bridewell Theatre), Maria in The Heiress (National Theatre), Nijo/Win in Top Girls and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice both directed by Jonathan Church at Salisbury Playhouse, The Witch in Into the Woods (Upstairs at the Landor) and Fanny in Cavalcade (Sadlers Wells).
Caroline's TV credits include playing Merlin's mother, Hunith in the BBC series Merlin, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, Disconnected, A Good Murder, Doctors, The Bill, Casualty, Holby City, Comedy Nation and Gamesmaster.
Maureen Lipman
Maureen Lipman has been acting on stage, screen and radio since graduating from LAMDA in 1967. She is best known for her homage to Joyce Grenfell, Re: Joyce, Aunt Eller in Oklahoma at the National and in the West End, Maggie in Outside Edge, Miss Skillen in the Theatre of Comedy’s See How They Run, Mme Armfeldt in Trevor Nunn’s A Little Night Music, Ellie in Daytona, the acclaimed play by Oliver Cotton and most recently Vita in Harvey, both at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The works of Alans -- Plater, Aykbourn and Bennett, together with those of her late husband Jack Rosenthal (The Evacuees, The Knowledge, Bag Lady) and her series About Face, Agony and Ladies of Letters make up some of her prolific TV work, alongside a memorable (to her) Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost.
Her film work includes such iconic titles as Up The Junction, Educating Rita and the Oscar winning The Pianist. Recent TV appearances include, Jonathan Creek, Holby City, The Job Lot, Disappearing Britain, Bull and the next series of Plebs. A long-time lover of Radio 4, she is currently starring in Lucy Beaumont’s To Hull and Back. She has written nine bestselling, anecdotal books for Robson Publishers. After 14 years writing for Good Housekeeping and a year on the Guardian she now has a monthly column in Standpoint and a quarterly health column in the Spectator. She has two writer children and two very powerful grandchildren, of whom she is very careful.
Serena Manteghi
Serena Manteghi has recently completed a year-long run playing 'Bobbie' in the Olivier-Award winning production of The Railway Children at Kings Cross. Other theatre credits include 'Leili' in HEART (Traverse Theatre), 'Paige' in Mucky Kid (Theatre 503), 'Clytemnestra' in Agammemnon (Southwark Playhouse). She is also an accomplished singer. Her musical theatre credits include 'Serena' in Some Small Love Story (Arts Theatre) and 'Polly Peachum' in The Beggar's Opera (York Theatre Royal). She is one fifth of The Beulah Band. She is also an Company Member of Belt Up Theatre and of The Flanagan Collective.
Tiny Fires
Tiny Fires Ltd is an independent production company set up by director Paul Robinson and producer Tara Finney, the award-nominated team behind the critically acclaimed Land of Our Fathers (Time Out’s Fringe Show of the Year 2013) which transferred to Trafalgar Studios in September 2014 and tours nationally this year. Paul and Tara set up Tiny Fires Ltd. to create high quality, unique and innovative theatre in the Off West End and West End spheres. For Tiny Fires’ first production they will present their favourite modern classic My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley. Not seen in London since its Royal Court debut in 1989 this dynamic new version can be seen at St. James’ Theatre in spring 2016.
All enquiries, high res images and further information:
Lauren Macready, Chloé Nelkin Consulting
E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., M: 07800 753 507
W: www.chloenelkinconsulting.com
Paul Robinson is joint director of Tiny Fires Ltd. 
Tara Finney is joint director of Tiny Fires Ltd. Tara qualified as a corporate solicitor before starting her theatrical career as Resident Assistant Producer at Theatre503 in 2012. She then worked as Producer for Iris Theatre and as Associate Producer at Company of Angels until 2015. Tara now runs Tara Finney Productions and Tiny Fires Ltd, and is currently Interim Producer & Programmer at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough.