Mothers Ruin – Hope Street Theatre
Steve Bird’s worthy and sensitive biographical play about Gary Skyner who was one of the first British born people to be affected by the Thalidomide medical scandal, comes to the stage in Skyner’s hometown.
The play documents the struggles that faced Skyner and his family in the early years and moves at a fairly good pace as we reach the present day.
The use of a likable narrator (Tommy Tyler) is a clever idea in moving the story forward and the play almost has a feel of a documentary with the use of various multimedia which adds context and depth to this inspiring story.
For me, the central and most powerful character of this piece is Gary’s strong and resilient mum Frances (Mary Savage) and how she deals, with amongst other things the breakup of her marriage to Gary’s father...