MOTHER DARK

an autobiographical solo show

This Mother should be living alone in a caravan on the moors, by herself, and did we mention alone? Fat chance when everyone around her keeps falling apart. Apparently rescuing is ‘enabling’ and ‘helping’ is the sunny side of control, but how do we let people go when there’s nothing left to catch them?

MOTHER DARK is a blackly comic, cathartic ride through co-dependence, mother rage and recovery. If you love a self help group and a banging 90s tune, if you yearn in these times for a (dark) Mother – this show is for you.

photo credit: Shay Rowan

A wild yet tender autobiographical solo show exploring care, mental health and how to bend before we break. Storytelling, satire and magical realism are balanced against a heart-stopping, stranger-than-fiction true crime. MOTHER DARK shines a much needed light on systemic failures, the complexities of human connection and our urge to ‘fix’ others, and finding hope in the most unexpected places.

photo credit: Shay Rowan

Building on a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England last year, a period of development for MOTHER DARK is planned with Ursula Martinez as director, Annie Siddons as dramaturg and Lizzy Margereson as movement director ahead of final production. An accompanying creative wellbeing workshop, centred around personal myth making, will be co-created with a core group of Young Adult Carers, in partnership with Blackburn and Darwen Carers Service.

A talk about making autobiographical theatre with Dr Andrea Maciel Garcia at MMU Manchester School of Art included an extract of MOTHER DARK (WIP). You can watch the BUNKER TALK here. This ongoing creative journey is documented on my Substack

A recording of the MOTHER DARK work-in-progress sharing at Manchester’s 53two in November 2025 can be seen here: watch MOTHER DARK (WIP)

photo credit: Shay Rowan