Mum’stheword for Scot Squad star in stage role
LONELINESS OF BEING A MOTHER IN FOCUS FOR
MOTHERHOOD is a popular opportunity these days. Television is fresh from revealing the travails of being a young mum in BBC Two’s Motherland.
And the older mother is currently being featured in the same channel’s Mum, starring Lesley Manville.
Now, Oran Mor is getting in on the act with Party Politics, a new play by Lorna Martin.
The monologue features Sally Reid as the mother whose love knows no bounds. But how does she cope when her little daughter isn’t invited to little Bo’s birthday party?
“It’s really about a young mum’s neurosis,” says Sally, smiling.
“It’s not so much about what the mum thinks the rejection means to the child, it’s more about what it means to the mother.”
She adds: “The mum keeps saying the kid feels excluded, she feels terrible, but it’s not the case. The six year-old daughter is a shield to protect the mother from revealing her true feelings.”
Being a young mum is a fascinating area of exploration. Kids don’t come with a rule book. Who says how much a mother has to invest in their child? Who can help steer the young mum through the process, tell them they are getting things out of perspective?
Who will tell them they’re being bonkers?
Sally, who stars in BBC Scotland’s Scot Squad as part of a double act with Jordan Young, isn’t a mother.
But that’s not to say she’s immune to the effects of young motherhood.
“I’m surrounded by young mothers who are my friends,” she says with a knowing smile. “And you do see a noticeable difference in how they behave as mothers. This isn’t being judgemental; I’m not talking about a bad or a good way.
“And I suppose there are a million different ways in which you can be a mother.”
Children can sometimes become an opportunity, an excuse, a diversion tactic . . .
“Yes, and a birthday party can heighten all of that. We all want to be cool and invited to the birthday party in life.
“I guess this story is a metaphor for that.”
Was Sally one of those children who was invited to the parties, growing up in Perthshire?
“I grew up in a small village and what would happen was the parties would be held in the village hall,” she recalls, smiling.
“My birthday was on the 21st and there was a boy in the village who was born on the 18th. So we always had a joint party. And I honestly hated it.”
She adds, smiling: “I still feel it now. I really resent it.”
The actress breaks into a laugh: “Maybe this was a suggestion I was always going to become an egotistical performer who had to share the spotlight with someone else.”
Sally reveals how the inner drama queen manifested itself at one party.
“When I was four years old I wrecked the boy’s cake,” she recalls, with a delicious malevolence in her eyes which suggests even now, she has no regrets. I stuck my hand right in it.”
Later on, when Sally was having a party, another little girl turned up who also had a birthday that weekend.
“I had just blown out my candles and my mum re-lit the cake so Julie could blow them out to. And I was furious. This was my cake. I just knew this cake-sharing was completely unjustified.”
How long did Sally spend in therapy trying to get over her birthday party traumas?
“Well, it is a big deal when you’re a kid,” she says, grinning.
Sally now realises her own mum has been fantastic in her life. Rather more balanced than the mother she is set to play.
“The play hints at the loneliness of being a mother. Her husband it out at work all