大象传媒

If you're a person who has ever had a mother - or a mother figure - in your life, then get down to the Watford Palace Theatre, who have just opened their Autumn season with a major revival of Charlotte Keatley's ground-breaking play My Mother Said I Never Should.

With an all female cast, the play explores the ever-changing roles and expectations of mothers and daughters, through the lives of four generations of women in one family.

The second generation is represented by Margaret, played by Abigail Thaw - daughter of the legendary John - and she told us about about all the issues that the play throws up.

My Mother Said I Never Should was one of the National鈥檚 significant plays of the 20th century wasn鈥檛 it?

Abigail: Yes, it was completed and first performed in 1987 and was something that was much talked about because it was an entirely female cast - but not in that rather worthy or political sense. It was considered a very exciting and interesting play and a great story in itself.

Abigail with Eve Pearce in rehearsals

There are four generations of women and my part, Margaret is the second generation and a woman who has had a very strict post-Edwardian childhood, very strict and rather loveless.

She grew up in the 50s, post-war, where women were discovering that, because of their experience during the war, where they were able to take over the jobs that the men had left behind, they could do so much more. It was a time of great optimism where women thought they could do anything and that the freedom they experienced during the Second World War would continue - but of course it didn鈥檛 in the 50s. It was firmly clamped down again.

This [Margaret] is a woman who had huge hopes and aspirations and excitement about the future and doesn鈥檛 want to be tied down to a marriage which takes away all working potential and freedom. She moves to London and hopes her life will be different but of course it isn鈥檛. So it鈥檚 about her passing on her own disappointments on through the generations of her children.

And her daughter has a baby which Margaret then brings up?

Abigail: Yes, she ends up bringing up her granddaughter as her daughter to enable her real daughter to pursue her career because it鈥檚 something that Margaret had always wanted to do and never been given the chance.

So she brings up another child to give her daughter the freedom she didn鈥檛 have?

Abigail: Yes and with that goes all the contradictions and paradoxes of her being very envious of her daughter鈥檚 freedom and career and resenting it, and yet she has enabled it by bringing up her daughter鈥檚 child. So it鈥檚 a huge contradiction which is what makes it so interesting to play.

It was first performed over 20 years ago and deals with teenage pregnancy, career prioritisation and single motherhood but is it what they thought about this two decades ago or is it still relevant to today because these issues are still talked about?

Abigail: It鈥檚 very relevant to today. I think Bridget (Larmour the director) wanted to put it on as a sort of modern classic to show that these [issues] are still relevant. Women have children 鈥� and it is difficult doing it on your own and when you鈥檙e very, very young and that鈥檚 never going to change. That is life so it鈥檚 still incredibly relevant. But what鈥檚 so exciting about this play is that you see it through the different generations from 1940 onwards and you do see how very little has changed. As long as we are the primary carers it will always be that way, but of course, one wants to be, it鈥檚 not that we鈥檙e trying to say that we shouldn鈥檛 be doing it, it鈥檚 just 鈥� you can鈥檛 have it all at the same time! You can - but just at different times in your life.

It鈥檚 the question people still ask now 鈥� can you have it all?

Abigail: Yes and I don鈥檛 think you can sadly. There are not enough hours in the day!

It was premiered in 1987 with the same director as this production, Bridget Larmour. That must give it an interesting edge, in that you get that feeling of how things are still the same today?

Abigail: Yes, I guess so. But I have to say, all credit to Bridget, there was very little reference to 鈥渨ell, when we did it before, we did it like this鈥�. She didn鈥檛 bring in her past experience in any imposing way! We were given huge amounts of freedom and I think actually she was re-discovering it as well. She is of course 20 years older and so had more experience in life to bring to it. We felt very honoured to be with the original director and Charlotte Keatley (the writer) who came and sat in on rehearsals as well.

It sounds as though it鈥檚 a lot about the relationships between mothers and daughters. Your own mother, Sally Alexander, was renowned in the feminist movement, has that upbringing influenced your portrayal of Margaret?

Abigail: [Laughs] Enormously! And my grandmothers too. I do hope that this play will bring so much up for people and make them think about the values that their mothers and their grandmothers had, and also how the female dynamic often skips a generation, so a grandmother and a grand daughter can actually get along a lot better than a mother and daughter. In my experience, I鈥檝e certainly found that my grandmother was much more patient and indulgent with my punk rebellion than my mother was and now, being a mother myself, I completely understand it.

There鈥檚 a slight bit of distance isn鈥檛 there?

Abigail: Yes, absolutely. And there鈥檚 knowing and trusting that they will come out the other side and it will be alright. It鈥檚 about allowing your daughter to grow into the person that they want to be and not what you want them to be. But also a lot of men have come up to us after they鈥檝e seen it and told us that they keep thinking about their mothers and grandmothers. I think it really does cross the genders.

So, it鈥檚 for anybody who has had a mother or at least a mother figure?

Abigail: Yes, it really is a very relevant play that just happens to have all women in it, but it鈥檚 a play about humanity.

What do you hope for your daughters in the next 20 years?

Abigail: I want my daughters to become barristers and to get wonderful A鈥橪evel results and have a thoroughly fulfilling time at university and play musical instruments and speak several languages and be happy and have wonderful fulfilling love lives! I want them to find something that they love doing and be able to earn a living by it. I think that鈥檚 the best thing that one could ever wish for as well as great love and trust. As I get older I realise that I can鈥檛 be their confidante all the time, as much as I would love to, because you do have to have secrets and privacy from your mother.

Your father John Thaw was a very famous actor, were you encouraged to do what you wanted to do and act?

Abigail: No, not at all, the opposite! But once I did [do it] he was very supportive. And I think the same about my daughters. I understand now why he was so unenthusiastic shall we say. He was always trying to get me to follow music or journalism 鈥� because it is hard, no one wants to see their child being rejected or unemployed and that鈥檚 what I wish for my own daughters that they just love what they do. I think that society is changing and I just hope that they feel confident in whatever they want to do as women and that鈥檚 not a drawback. [I want them to] feel that they can have children as and when they wish and that that doesn鈥檛 put the stamp of a lack of ambition on them.

Why else should people come and see the play?

Abigail: It鈥檚 very funny in spite of all these big scenes and issues and it鈥檚 also very moving. I hope men aren鈥檛 put off by the fact that it鈥檚 an all woman cast, which shouldn鈥檛 even be an issue! I even hate myself for saying it but I think that sadly that still might just be the case. I think they will be gloriously surprised by how relevant this play is to everyone and that it still really holds up 20 years on and always will.

My Mother Said I Never Should is on at the Watford Palace Theatre until Saturday 17 October 2009.