My Mother’s Funeral: The Show

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An adage says when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. This saying doesn’t truly capture the idea behind having a pile of lemons since sourness is not the operative principle in such a moment in life; it is bitterness. A better description would be to ask what one would do if life gave you bitter oranges instead. The answer is to make marmalade, a bitter-sweet confection to stimulate a sense of the good and the not-so-good of life. But even this doesn’t truly grasp the nature of such moments in life as does the Yiddish expression, “gehockteh tsooris,” or chopped grief, sometimes translated as chopped misery.

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show is an exquisite example of gehockteh tsooris. The play written by Kelly Jones works on different levels to present the confusing emotions accompanying grief coupled with a lack of understanding and insensitivity in the theatrical community to the social dynamics of different groups of people. Jones presents the work of a play in progress within the play to explore those levels while bringing focus to the creative compromises faced by the artists. In this case, it is a question of how much one betrays the reality of one’s life to satisfy the unrealistic vision of the theatrical world in question.

Charlotte Bennett directs an exquisite cast of three in an exploration of these themes. Nicole Sawyerr solidly leads the ensemble in the lead role of Abigail Waller, a working-class playwright. Sawyerr is supported by Samuel Armfield, who perfectly embodies two characters: an unnamed theatrical director with a class-based condescending attitude and Darren, Abigail’s brother. The third member, Debra Baker, skillfully takes on a number of other characters, the two most important of which are Abigail’s mother and an actress portraying the character of a mother in a play written by Abigail. Baker gives distinctly different presentations of these two pivotal characters. She also takes on a number of other ancillary characters who voice supporting elements to the overall story.

The play opens with Abigail encountering a theater director who commissioned her to write a play that was “real, raw, urgent, brave.” Her play, Astro-mite, is the commissioned work. She is anxious to know when it is to be presented, and after a series of borderline condescending comments about the working-class world she is from, the Director tells her it will not be produced. The reason he gives is, “Fiction doesn’t sell anymore. Our audiences want real stories, told by real people, a chance to see into a world unlike their own, in every way, to both challenge what they believe about people like you and confirm it. They want you, your story, not bugs in space, understand?” He suggests she write something from her “unique lens,” meaning a working-class view from someone in the British welfare system, a working-class “poor” person.

This exchange is the first of several during the show, illuminating the attitude of some in the theatrical community who arrogantly assume an understanding of people’s lives outside their world. They are dismissive of the creative efforts of artists struggling to be accepted in the theatrical community with an arrogance bordering on cruelty. It is an element that plays a central role later in the production.

The seriousness of Abigail’s loss of the production of her play becomes clear in the following scene when the death of Abigail’s mother is revealed. A discussion with a funeral director about the plans for her mother’s funeral presents the idea of a funeral being a different type of show. Baker solidly portrays a funeral director’s matter-of-fact discussion of various burial packages as if they were vacation travel packages. At this moment, Abigail’s concern about the loss of her play’s production becomes clear: the burial cost. Abigail desperately wants to give her mother the type of burial her mother Linda often talked about.

Abigail goes to her brother Darren (Samuel Armfield) to see if he will help share the cost of the burial. This encounter with her brother reveals not only the strained relationship that existed between her brother and her mother Linda but also the fact that his mother was living on social benefits administered by the Council, a British welfare system. Darren has no interest in contributing to his mother’s funeral since he always felt rejected by her. He suggests that Abigail let the Council take care of the burial costs.

Abigail’s struggles to raise money for a funeral fall flat, at which point she decides to write a play about her mother’s funeral. She pitches the play to the Director without revealing that her mother has died. It is to be a fictional account of the reality of her struggles to give her mother what Abigail considers a decent funeral with a proper grave. It is this moment that leads to the core of the play.

The set is a simple multilayered platform with a microphone stand in the center. All of the action takes place on and around this platform with a few additional props. The microphone is a device that Jones uses for Abigail to begin working out the details of her new play. In the first instance she makes several attempts at an opening and then slips into a memory of a conversation with her mother. Baker as Abigail’s mother Linda provides a warm, nurturing characterization that is at odds with Darren’s earlier description. This memory gives Abigail the boost she needs to make a firm start on the play.

After a conversation with Darren about clearing out Linda’s apartment in the Council Estate housing, Abigail steps up to the microphone and recites from her play. From this point on, Jones has beautifully woven elements that address aspects of the central themes. There are encounters with the mortuary trying to learn when Abigail is going to pick up her mother’s body. There is an exchange with the funeral director, who is working on getting an answer about funeral arrangements and burial. The most important exchanges take place as Abigail works on her play about a mother’s death with the Director and an actor chosen to play the mother, and with memories of conversations Abigail had with her mother.

Armfield and Baker seamlessly shift from character to character while Sawyerr presents the creative and emotional struggles being presented to Abigail. The actions of the Director and actor clearly underscore the lack of understanding each has for the story Abigail has created. They keep forcing the story in a direction that does not reflect Abigail’s immediate and very real experience of her mom’s death. They are intent on pushing a conception of a reality they know nothing about.

A memory exchange between Abigail and Linda comes from the shifting character portrayals giving clarity to Abigail on what she must do concerning her mother’s funeral and burial. It is a bittersweet moment that leads to a resolution in a conversation between Darren and Abigail.

Rhys Jarman’s set design is a simple multilayered circular platform on which all of the action takes place with the addition of simple props. He is also responsible for the costume design. The lighting design by Joshua Gadsby coupled with Asaf Zohar’s sound design effectively add emotional energy at critical points in the production.

This production at SoHo Playhouse is part of the 2025 International Fringe Encore Theater Series running from January 2^nd through March 2^nd. The strength of My Mother’s Funeral: The Show is a good indication of what can be expected from the other shows in the series. These shows are a way of experiencing a broad range of theatrical productions for people who enjoy theater.

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show (through January 25, 2025)

2015 Encore Fringe Series

Paines Plough, Belgrade Theatre Company and Mercury Theatre Colchester Production

SoHo Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street, in Manhattan.

For tickets, visit https://ci.ovationtix.com/35583/production/1217132

Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission