This play is about the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters and explores the themes of independence, growing up and secrets. A story which explores the lives and relationships of four generations of women: Doris, Margaret, Jackie and Rosie. Their loves, expectations, and choices are set against the huge social changes of the twentieth century. When Jackie falls pregnant with Rosie, without a husband, she is unable to cope and hands over the baby to her mother, Margaret. The play looks at the consequences of this secret and each woman 's opinion on it. The play has a minimalist set and is deliberately unrealistic. One of the most unrealistic things in the play is the waste ground scenes where all characters become children. In these scenes, Doris becomes the youngest child at 5, with Rosie at 8 and Jackie and Margaret both 9. Some viewers have said that "it works backwards on itself which can get rather confusing. '' The scenes do not follow in chronological order, so in one scene Margaret will be a young child during the war being comforted by her mother Doris and in the next Jackie will be a child visiting her grandma Doris. This can also be slightly confusing because it is not specifically mentioned how old the characters are in each scene, but mostly it is very self - explanatory.
when is my mother said i never should set
the twentieth century