Writer and broadcaster Jonathan Maitland’s autobiographical play How to Survive your Mother is set to get its premiere at London’s King’s Head Theatre this autumn 2024.
The play will be directed by Oliver Dawe, and star Maitland as himself in a narrator role, with further casting to be announced.
Jonathan Maitland (The Interview, Dead Sheep, An Audience with Jimmy Savile, The Last Temptation of Boris Johnson, Wilko) has adapted How to Survive Your Mother for the stage from his 2006 memoir of the same name.
How do you navigate a crazy, glamorous, narcissistic, scandal-loving mother whose idea of fun is to turn your 1970s family home into Britain’s first ever gay hotel? A chance meeting leads a writer to investigate his mother’s secret past and trawl through memories of her colourful life. It’s perfect subject matter for a play. But should he be exposing her private life for public entertainment? And why is he starring in the play as himself?
Jonathan Maitland said in a statement: “I have spent a lifetime asking myself if my mother was an abusive monster or a passionate, loving, flawed, maverick business genius ahead of her time. Now, after ten years of developing this all-too-true story for the stage with director Oliver Dawe, audiences will get to decide. It’s an unusual story on the face of it : but the questions it asks are relevant to every family on the planet: what makes a good parent? What constitutes abuse? And how can we be a better parent to our children than our parents were to us?”
How to Survive Your Mother is produced by Denise Silvey for Storckmani Productions, and is playing at the King’s Head Theatre from 23 October to 24 November 2024.
Book tickets to How To Survive Your Mother at the King’s Head Theatre London
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