Broadcaster turned playwright Jonathan Maitland (The Interview, Dead Sheep, An Audience with Jimmy Savile) wrote a memoir about his larger than life mother almost 20 years ago and was often urged to adapt it for the stage.
This King’s Head production shows why so many people were so keen to see it.
To say Maitland's childhood was unusual would be a significant understatement and although some of the incidents in the play have been tinkered with, the response of the audience was a mixture of outraged horror and fascinated amusement.
His mother was an outrageous character who frequently changed her name, was infused with narcissistic self-confidence, and used industrial language at every opportunity.
She thought little of telling him that she had a terminal illness.
In a series of short tableau (supported by a brilliant and versatile cast), the fabulous, leopard-skin print-clad Emma Davies has brought to life one of theatre’s great grotesques.
She postures, she flirts, she cajoles, and she threatens – all to the immense delight of the capacity audience: She even turns the family home in Cheam into a gay guest-house - Homolulu!
In a clever dramatic device, Davies also plays Jonathan’s wife (who urged him into therapy) and the shrink who delivered the therapy, which he walked out of after one session.
The support cast is first rate: I lost count, but, between them, they play 40 or more characters – from policemen to barristers, council inspectors and gay disco queens.
The role of schoolboy Maitland and his grandson was played on Press Night by Howard Webb and was perfect – a kind of baffled acceptance of his mother's antics.
Unusually, Maitland is a presence throughout an exuberant 90 minutes – either watching from the stalls or, on stage, playing himself. There's also a young man version of him.
While we lap up the eccentricities and bonkerness of the mother, it is hard to point to any deeper understanding of his relationship with her.
In the programme notes he writes that "my character doesn’t do therapy," so perhaps writing a play is a decent alternative.
Oliver Dawe's comic production is a great evening’s theatre that has its poignant moments, but could this intrusion into family life have been better justified if we were left with more insight into Jonathan’s side of the relationship and it's impact on the man he is today?
How to Survive Your Mother is at The King's Head Islington until November 23.
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