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 March and playing until 4 April. 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.”
Yasmeen Arden says: “MUM touched my heart and my imagination from the moment I first read it and I was immediately excited to be part of it. Juliet writes with such honesty and truth and in a such a unique style, so the play holds a very real sense of loss on a multi-sensory level, with the most beautifully layered female experience and a truly joyful playfulness.”
