Review: How to Survive Your Mother (King's Head Theatre)

Review by Izzy Tierney

⭐️⭐️⭐️

To both write and star in a new piece of theatre is daunting enough, but to have actually lived the very life you’re portraying on stage is exposing yourself to a whole new level of judgement. Still, Jonathan Maitland has decided to do just that in his latest play, How to Survive Your Mother. Described as “the true story of a technicolour woman in a black and white world,” the show details the many eccentricities of Maitland’s mother throughout his life, and the way in which he attempts to deal with the unusual childhood she gave him - unusual being a massive understatement.

We meet Maitland in the almost-present day as he grapples with the decision of writing this play, being somewhat unable to justify to his wife, who is much more keen for him to try therapy, why he wants to bare his and his mother’s past on stage. The play flits between Maitland’s memories and his current life, where he is a dad trying his best to not repeat the behaviours of his toxic mother and absent father. The show is obviously very personal but never feels self indulgent, with Maitland, as both a young boy and an adult, appearing as somewhat of a secondary character to his mother, even though the story is told through his eyes. We watch his mother’s unhinged exuberance in various scenarios: flirting and bribing a man from the council so she can continue operating her old people’s home despite breaking regulations, turning their home into Britain’s first ever gay hotel, and inviting her solicitor to her son’s birthday dinner where she tries to make her husband agree to a divorce... to name but a few.

The cast of six are all fantastic, playing a variety of characters including Jonathan Maitland, who captures the audience right from the start, at three different stages of his life. Howard Webb portrays a young boy eager for his mother’s love and approval really well, showing a layer of sadness under his obvious adoration of her. Peter Clements shines in every one of his roles, offering an especially compelling performance as a son with a lot of love but very little patience left for his mother, played expertly by Emma Davies. She’s a mixture of everything; comedic, conceited and cruel but never anything less than extravagant. Her glamorous leopard print dress and bright red lipstick make a stark contrast to the simple set up of the stage, where a white floor and back wall and some black crates containing props ensure the audience’s attention is never focused on anything but the actors themselves, the cast concluding with John Wark and Stephen Ventura who bring a continuous stream of energy to countless roles. Whilst Oliver Dawe’s direction felt a tad messy at times, he created very effective scene and character transitions with different props, for example, using a birthday cake as a steering wheel and airbag to show a car crash, and Webb simply throwing an apple to Clements to signify the growth from boy to man. The music throughout did a good job of reflecting both the time period and the erratic nature of Maitland’s mother, though the volume was sometimes a bit jarring in such a small theatre.

It is an engaging watch, the dialogue dealing with the absurdity by not portraying it as overly absurd, allowing the audience to connect more to Maitland’s mindset as a boy who never knew anything different. There are many instances where you start to feel sorry for him, but before that sadness can fully develop you’re hit with another joke or witty remark that retains the careful balance between poignant and comedic writing. However, the script unfortunately struggles to to focus on why it’s telling this story. Maitland says in an interview that “if [his mother] were analysed today, it would be textbook narcissistic personality disorder,” but he makes it clear both on and off stage that this is a play, not a diagnosis. With this in mind, I anticipated the purpose of this story to be about how he was affected by his mother and how he has processed his tumultuous youth, but his feelings are never properly explored.

The show is quite factual in its storytelling; its focus much more on portraying Maitland’s memories than probing into his mother’s psyche or his own complicated emotions towards her. It’s frustrating at times to watch material that has such a great premise with intriguingly complex characters in front of you, without ever getting to truly know who they are and why they act the way they do. I understand that even just telling the facts of a true story like this is exposing, and maybe it’s just because I’m a psychology nerd, but I can’t help wishing the curtain had been completely ripped away to showcase the deep intricacies of these characters and their relationship.

The abundance of potential this play has makes me believe it could easily evolve into something brilliant, it just isn't quite there yet - in some ways its 90 minute running time being too long and in some ways too short. Should the point of the show be purely about finding the hilarity in the scandalous nature of a narcissistic mother, it could be shortened into a fast paced journey through a fascinating woman’s life that serves mostly for entertainment purposes. Equally, should it choose to dig deeper and really examine the internal monologues of these characters and the complexities of trauma, it could do with a longer running time that allows the psychological element to be thoroughly delved into and given the detail it deserves. I completely respect that Maitland isn’t looking for sympathy, nor is he trying to demonise his late mother, and in its present form the play is a perfectly enjoyable way to spend your evening, but without a strong choice of narrative intention, How To Survive Your Mother doesn't currently manage to achieve its potential brilliance.

How to Survive Your Mother plays at the King’s Head Theatre until November

For tickets and information visit https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/how-to-survive-your-mother

Photos by Charles Flint