Mummy, I’m Scared — Review

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‘Mummy, I’m Scared!’ is a 50 minute, new, original, Australian work written and performed by Fia Morrison, Alison Cooper, and Georgia Condon. The show follows three daughters as they attempt to perform a seance to bring their recently departed mother back to life. Mentored by performance maker, writer, and POST performance group member Mish Grigor, ‘Mummy, I’m Scared!’ is a gloriously funny piece that has the audience laughing the entire time.

Held in the Shopfront theatre, the audience are invited to the year 1892 to attend the ‘hottest candle lit seance’ at the house of the FeatherBottoms. As dinner starts, Mummy FeatherBottom reveals she is dying, but chokes halfway through reading her will. Terrified that everything will be left to their incompetent step-father Nigel, daughters Gwenda-line, Elizabethington, and Genevie conduct a seance calling forth their recently departed Mummy to determine who will inherit the estate. Racing against the clock, the three daughters ‘take the audience through a mysterious and ridiculously silly exploration of all things supernatural’.

The piece is wonderfully absurdist and farcical with bizarre plot twists and use of props. Actors Morrison, Cooper, and Condon play all characters in the show, switching between them through exaggerated, kitsch costumes and hilarious caricatures. The script itself is pure genius combining the supernatural and the absurd bringing life to the minimal and static set. I can honestly not recommend this production enough, the entire audience was howling with laughter the whole show, still laughing as they left the theatre.

Shopfront’s Artslab festival is dedicated to bringing forth original Australian works with a wide range for all theatre enjoyers. This year’s iteration runs until the 12th of April and I highly recommend dedicating a night to see multiple works. If you enjoy supernatural themes blown outof proportion paired with absurdist, farcical humour, and audience participation, you will highly enjoy this show. Catch ‘Mummy, I’m Scared!’ now!

★★★★★

— Isabel Sargeant