Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Cathy Tyson, Chereen Buckley.
Homelessness is such a serious issue in 21st Century Britain that it should be considered a national crime, an offence by successive governments upon the people of the land to who have been let down, systematically and without hope. We are sold a pup, an image of fecklessness of people making this particular choice for themselves and that the statistics are wrong, that people are not homeless, they are just beggars, idle cheats and scroungers; this image is so far removed from the truth that it is impossible not to see the pain and division it causes, not just between the haves and have not’s bit in what was even the tightest of bonds, between mother and daughter, father and son.
Michelle Inniss’ touching and hard hitting play, She Called Me Mother, looks at the lives of two women, bound by blood, forged apart by circumstance and throughout the two-hander, the sense of despair that is immediately forthcoming, the bleakness of both women’s immediate lives, both through forced homelessness one way or another, is saddled by the tenderness of possible hope, of a possible way out. However the way out is marred as the vast majority of cases of homelessness are by the circumstance in which they are shackled. Some can never be rescued or saved because society steps over them, they turn to means of power and force and it is in that very sense of dominant power that both Cathy Tyson and Chereen Buckley rise like goliaths to the challenge.
Cathy Tyson brings the part of Evangeline to so much prominence that the very act of being homeless is to be seen as yet another punch below the belt by a patriarchal society that cares not or evades being seen as to be as weak, uncaring and yet the nobility that resides in her character as she sells homeless magazines under the arches of London Bridge Station makes her someone to whom life owes an apology to. It is perhaps one of Ms. Tyson’s most demanding roles, her monologues impeccable and the radiance of her performance outstanding.
The Unity Theatre certainly have a true hit on their hands with this play and it is one that every attendee should take note of, that they should see the person’s story and not just the person on the street and then perhaps as a society we truly can stop the spectre of homelessness being increased upon by Governments willing to see such unfortunate people as just something to score points over.
A truly enlightening production, one that hits home with quiet brutality.
Ian D. Hall