Pramkicker

This very silly, very sweary show's title is much more literal than you might imagine. Comedian and writer Sadie Hasler has cast herself as the law-abiding younger sister of unapologetic singleton Jude, who's been sent to anger management therapy after kicking the pram of an obnoxious coffee shop yummy mummy.

The two sisters are at the heart of Hasler's narrative, as they bicker, reminisce and even re-enact that scene from Dirty Dancing in and out of the therapy room. Sarah Mayhew plays Jude with alternate insouciance and flapping fury, scattering swearwords like bird seed. Hasler's Susie is sweeter, nestling under Jude's fiercely protective wing and dealing with her own heartbreak with quiet sadness.

Jude's pramkicking frenzy was set off by a woman pitying her childless state: she's childfree and proud, and desperate to share the reasons why. Middle-class motherhood is an easy target for laughs, and some of the show's weaker humour is Sunday supplement satire type stuff. Organic juice and kids called Rupert; you know the drill. But the sisters' childhood throws up some less expected giggles. There's a hilarious recurring riff about buried dolls in the back garden, surreal pop cultural flights of fancy, and sex jokes so rude it's worth not having children just so they'd never have to hear them.

Hasler's play is at its weakest in the therapy room, but it turns vulnerable—in a good way—when it explores all the intimate corners of these sisters' lives together. Prepare to cringe, and come out kicking.

 

 

https://www.assemblyfestival.com/event/120/