Born in the Gardens

Synopsis

Maud and her son Mo live in a decaying mock-Tudor house in Bristol. She chats to people on the telly, he converses with the cat and both share a penchant for bizarre cocktails, tinned food and keeping the past alive. When older son, Hedley and Mo’s twin, Queenie, return for their father’s funeral, they try to persuade Maud and Mo that the time is ripe to escape the confines of their crumbling home - but not everyone wants freedom when it’s offered...

Our Review:

23 July 2008

Michael Frayn has called Peter Nichols a dangerous writer. It’s easy to see why. The writer who gave us Privates on Parade and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (still one of the most uncomfortably funny plays about disability) in the same year wrote Passion Play and this `family comedy’.

First produced by the Bristol Old Vic in 1979, Born in the Gardens, launching Peter Hall’s sixth summer Bath festival season is a scary reminder of `the way we were’, evoking a little England of provincial insularity and terrifying casual prejudice. What’s more, Bristolian Nicholls who sets his play in Bristol ends up seducing us into believing that his two protagonists – the recently widowed Maud (Stephanie Cole) and her 40-something son, Maurice (Allan Corduner) - are somehow to be applauded. They have seen off the `invaders’ – older son, Hedley (Simon Shepherd), a Labour MP, and Maurice’s twin sister, Queenie (Miranda Foster) – both of whom having fled the n...

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