Birmingham Rep (The Door) until 15th March then Tour
Directed by Ben Payne
Reviewed by Helen Chapman
Having arrived slightly sceptical at the thought of a new age journey through outer space, I was impressed by a down to earth story of a modern family simply dealing with what life has dealt them. Douglas Maxwell’s The Mother Ship is told by an 18 year old boy Eliot who recently having lost his parents is now confronted with big decisions, exam results, a disabled brother, a pregnant step mum and no girlfriend.
When it seems to him things couldn’t get much worse, his younger brother Gerry goes missing – at the hands of aliens. The play continues with the family and extras on the search for Gerry and on a mission to understand what’s going on.
Admittedly it is a bizarre storyline, but the beauty of Maxwell’s work is how it is centred around situations so real. It emerges toward the end of the play that the aliens and the Mother Ship and other life are all a coping strategy created by Eliot for his brother to help him deal with simply being different having developed severe learning difficulties following an accident at sea. The key to this play is the portrayal of each relationship. The love between the brothers and their step mum Lorraine not quite surfacing as she’s not their real mother; the awkward tension between Eliot and Gerry’s friend as he steps on eggshells around her disability, and that tension soon leading to chemistry; the hopeless boy-next-door who thinks he is
in love with Lorraine who in turn sees him as merely an irritating little boy; and the clumsy but well meaning policeman, brilliantly played by Daniel Settatree, as he makes haphazard attempts to solve the case whilst making greater, but no more successful attempts, to hide his crush on Lorraine. These well developed relationships, presented by a fantastic cast, combine real emotion and depth with lighthearted comedy, constantly keeping the audience entertained.The clever use of a single set with various inventive props (an amphicar that can drive on water and a makeshift helicopter) reflect the simplicity of the foundations of the play and also the imagination that follows. Not only was the dialogue comic, the timely use of “space age” music added to the atmosphere and played its part in telling the story.
The Mother Ship comes highly recommended, a credit to new theatre.
Photos by Roberts Day: Top - Jonathan Bailey as Eliot and Robyn Hunt as Judy: Bottom - Daniel Settatree as Macmillan and Joanne Moseley as Lorraine
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