Jumpy

It was a busy weekend for me this week but in all the right ways. A gorgeously sunny music festival, a cinema trip, a big breakfast and some great seats for Jumpy, a play by April de Angelis starring Tamsin Greig.

I'm a big Tamsin Greig fan from watching Green Wing, Love Soup and Black Books but she's done her fair share of stage and 'serious' television too and these two different sides to her team up in Jumpy. In April de Angelis's play directed by Nina Raine, Hilary - a fifty-year-old wife and mother - is battling her on going conflict with her teenage daughter. Bel Powley takes on the role of the argumentative teen in the middle of an adolescent rebellion and does so in style. She completely holds her own on stage with this fantastic cast and you are able to be equally infuriated by and feel affection for her.

It has been billed as a 'frank and funny drama' and that really is the best way to describe it. I suspect you could see this play in very different ways depending on who you are (mother, daughter, father, singleton, married, someone with no children, the list goes on) but you can still all laugh, take comfort, feel touched (or all three!) by the careful observations that De Angelis has written into this production.

All set against a sparse set of mostly white, the characters are entirely on show so nothing goes unmissed. I definitely recommend going to see it if you have a chance. Grieg and Powley are a tour de force... and Doon Mackichan... well, you'll just have to watch it!