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Charlotte Keatley's first main stage play "My Mother Said I Never Should" explores the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters, moving the play back and forth between the lives of four generations of women--their desire to love and be loved, their expectations and choices, all set against the backdrop of enormous social change during the twentieth century.

The play revolves around Jackie's unexpected pregnancy and her decision to give the baby to her mother to raise. The drama revolves around the consequences of this secret and each women's opinion on it.

The stage set is minimilistic and the drama incorporates deliberately unrealistic situations to explore deeply internal issues, such as the wasteland scenes where all the characters revert back to themselves as children. The play has been translated into twenty-two languages and in 2000 it was chosen by the Royal National Theatre as one of the "Hundred Significant Plays of the Twentieth Century."

Commentary and notes by Charlotte Keatley.

I don't know if you'll ever love me as much as I love you, but one day you'll understand why I've done this to you. Doris, born illegitimate in 1900, exchanges her budding teaching career for marriage and motherhood. When the war is over, her daughter Margaret marries an American and has Jackie, who becomes an archetypal 60s rebel. When Jackie can't face being a single mother, it is decided that baby Rosie will be brought up as Margaret's own. That's the plan anyway . . . Charlotte Keatley's award-winning play is a moving exploration of the relationships between mothers and daughters, and the consequences of breaking the most sacred taboo of motherhood. My Mother Said I Never Should is about the choices we make which determine the course of our lives and how it is never too late to change. This edition was published to coincide with the revival of the play at the St James Theatre, London, in 2016, starring Maureen Lipman and Katie Brayben.

Written specifically for GCSE students by academics in the field, the Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions provide in-depth explanatory material alongside the play texts frequently studied at Key Stage 4. Whether for use in the classroom or independent study, these editions offer a fully comprehensive and lightly glossed play text with accompanying notes specifically directed towards readers of this age, which unravel essential topics and challenge all students to delve further into literary analysis. Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should grapples with social forces that threaten to split four generations of women apart. When Jackie, who is unmarried, gives away her baby to her mother, the women are united in keeping this family secret yet divided in their opinions of it. In addition to some on-page explanatory notes and the play text itself, this edition contains sub-headed analyses of themes, characters, context and dramatic devices, as well as background information on the playwright. The Methuen Drama GCSE Student Editions never lose sight of their readership, and offer students the confidence to engage with the material, explore their own interpretations, and improve their understanding of the works.

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Charlotte Keatley's first main stage play "My Mother Said I Never Should" explores the difficult relationships between mothers and daughters, moving the play back and forth between the lives of four generations of women--their desire to love and be loved, their expectations and choices, all set against the backdrop of enormous social change during the twentieth century.

The play revolves around Jackie's unexpected pregnancy and her decision to give the baby to her mother to raise. The drama revolves around the consequences of this secret and each women's opinion on it.

The stage set is minimilistic and the drama incorporates deliberately unrealistic situations to explore deeply internal issues, such as the wasteland scenes where all the characters revert back to themselves as children. The play has been translated into twenty-two languages and in 2000 it was chosen by the Royal National Theatre as one of the "Hundred Significant Plays of the Twentieth Century."

Commentary and notes by Charlotte Keatley.

This warm and gripping story of fear and forgiveness is the first major play in twenty years from Charlotte Keatley, the award-winning author of My Mother Said I Never Should. This beautifully immersive and yet also elusive new play is a subtle and compassionate piece, with real humanity of characterisation and a firmly-evoked sense of place. A young woman on the eve of her 30th birthday returns to her parents' home in the sweeping hills of the Peak District. But the house is full of memories, and down by the reservoir she hears a voice from a drowned village. In time, every secret must come to the surface. Keatley's atmospheric writing creates a palimpsest of the past which cleverly yet evocatively leaks into the present. She presents a clear continuity of wrongs repeating themselves and the damage they wreak lasting across centuries and generations. An impressively accomplished piece, Our Father's sustained atmosphere and strong characterisation connects with Keatley's trademark dreamlike sequences which defy a linear chronological structure. Reflecting how the past continually interrupts the present, the time device is fundamental to the play's meaning as well as its psychological themes of guilt, evasions, resentments and eventual revelation of secrets.