Patsy Ferran elevates the material in new monologue My Mum’s A Twat upstairs at Royal Court
“Have you ever tried to sustain a relationship with a twat? It’s hard work and you need to be completely not a twat yourself if you want any success in this. Which is really hard when you’ve just started being a teenager.”
Written by the Royal Court’s head of press Anoushka Warden, it has been interesting tracking the critical response to My Mum’s A Twat and whether this relationship has been disclosed, indeed if it needs to be mentioned at all.
My feeling is that it does, for transparencies sake. But it also throws up the interesting slant that it is a partly autobiographical work and so one that is intensely personal. And as the story of a young girl whose absents herself from her life by joining a cult in Canada, it is an eye-opener.
It is also, not strictly, the most theatrical of tales, especially in this monologue format. And it takes the not-inconsiderable talents of co-directors Vicky Featherstone and Jude Christian, and actor Patsy Ferran to conjure depths and energy that aren’t always there.
Warden has a nifty way with a turn of phrase though, some sharply comic moments shine through and Chloe Lamford’s set neatly recreates the aesthetic and mood of a teenage bedroom which is more than apt. A play to like rather than love though.
