Amanda Boxer will star in the world premiere of Mum, a new play about love, loss and dementia by actress and comedian Juliet Cowan, directed by Yasmeen Arden, opening at the Playground Theatre on 18 April 2020.
Amanda Boxer will star in the world premiere of Mum, a new play about love, loss and dementia by actress and comedian Juliet Cowan, directed by Yasmeen Arden, opening at the Playground Theatre on 18 April and playing until 4 April 2020. Sian Ejiwunmi-Le Berre will star as ‘Roz’, Lucille Findlay as ‘Laurel’ and completing the cast are Lilly Driscoll and Martin Edwards.
“I thought that if she wasn’t getting run over or shitting herself, all would be OK with the world.”
MUM is a play about identity, love and losing your mind. Roz and Laurel are struggling to manage their mum, who has dementia. Mum is struggling to manage the real world and the compelling world of her hallucinations.
What does it mean to be a mother? Who gets to decide what is real? And when is it OK to laugh instead of cry?
Juliet Cowan says: “I wrote this play as a response to certain hallucinations my mother had. I felt it was so sad that she had to be in them all alone without any of us there to accompany her. So I decided to people her hallucinations with an audience who experienced them alongside her. I like theatre that is a sensory and immersive experience. I hope that MUM is a way for us all to come together and explore the highs and lows of having one foot in this world and the other in somewhere altogether more dreamlike.”
This is Juliet Cowan’s first full-length play. Her show, Eat, Pray, Call the Police, sold out at The Zédel and she is currently writing a follow-up called Fuck Off And Leave Me Alone. Juliet is also an actress, best known for her roles in Killed By My Debt, PhoneShop, Pulling, Hank Zipzer, Cuckoo, Sarah Jane Adventures, Skins and Fresh Meat. She’s currently preparing for her role as ‘Barbara Monke’ in Amazon’s adaptation of the novel The Power, opposite Eddie Marsan and directed by Reed Morano. She started her career as a stand-up, beating Jimmy Carr, Russell Howard and Andy Zaltzman in the finals of So You Think You’re Funny.
Mum is directed by Yasmeen Arden, with design by Jasmine Swan, lighting design by Ben Jacobs, sound design by Nicola Chang, and is produced by Kitty Wordsworth and Zoe Weldon.
