As part of Curve's Inside Out Festival we are cordially invited into the shambolic front room of Mrs Mabel Green, ex-soul singer, current arthritic pothead, ASBO'd pensioner and surrogate mother to various lost souls in Nottingham's Basford. Surrounded by the detritus of her past life she is sifting through it prior to a holiday, and possible permanent stay, in Spain or a return to sheltered accommodation. Surrounded by her memories and the various young scallies she mentors she is encouraged to regale them with songs from her past. Then when her old singing partner turns up and the old bitchy rivalry surfaces as the one time friends tear each other apart and then put the past behind them.
This is Nottingham's answer to Gangsta Granny filtered through Mrs Brown's Boys and The Royale Family with loads of original songs by Nic Harvey, artistic director of Sheep Soup, the production company behind Mrs Green, who also wrote the show and played keyboard and guitar onstage. Major plaudits must got to Ben Welch as the eponymous Mrs Green and Shauna Shim as Vivian De Wilde, her old singing partner. These two especially tore up the stage when they went head to head.
Mrs Green, The Musical is on at Curve again on Saturday 25 April and out on tour.More details on their website www.sheepsoup.co.uk
First published in
Western Gazette
© Paul Towers 24/4/2015
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