Review: The Good Enough Mums Club at the Lowry is ‘brilliant, vital and full of laughs’

The Good Enough Mums Club is about a group of mums from different walks of life who meet every week to discuss topics of education and to talk to each other.

The club has become a haven for these women and they welcome newcomer Esme with open arms.

The Good Enough Mums Club At The Lowry

The set is the club which resembles a school classroom with a table off to the side and small chairs for children.

The way they use the set, and the lighting is amazing, for example, there’s a moment when Esme is having an episode, and they use the lights on the windows to project an almost isolated feeling.

It’s incredible what effects lighting can have.

They use the set for their homes too not just the club. It’s rather creative so they don’t have to move stuff around they just use what they have on stage to create different spaces.

The Trials and Tribulations of Motherhood

Each one of the mums is dealing with something different and that I love.

It shows the different ways women and mums suffer while being relatable.

A lot of women go through so many things after having children, but it is not spoken about a lot as there is not enough research and women tend to suffer in silence, and that’s what makes this club important in the show and out of it.

Michelle (Played by Rebecca Bernice Amissah) is a woman of colour, and she has a solo song where she mentions as such.

In the song, she mentions the colour of her skin and how her children will have to live with that.

It’s something that women of colour with children must face and must prepare their children for.

Amissah’s voice is to die for!

She has a big voice that carries out throughout the theatre.

She brings her heart to the show and is the mum of the group. She’s always looking out for all the other mums and making
sure they’re all okay.

The Impressive Joanna Kirkland

Bea (Played by Joanna Kirkland) is a wealthy mum whose husband is always away on business trips, so he never has time for their children.

She represents all the mothers whose partners abandon them in their joint roles as parents.

Despite providing for the family financially he has abandoned his duties in every other aspect.

Kirkland brings the honesty in a harsh way which has the audience gasping in disbelief.

She has the element of other mums judging mums who they believe are less than.

Chantel (Jade Samuels) is a single mother by choice and Bea is a single mother by force, so she projects the stuff she does with
her children onto Chantel without realising the hurt behind her words.

Amy Ross as Fun Mum

Sophie (Played by Amy Ross) is the fun mum. She takes pride in being fun and cool. We learn later why she loves her daughter so much and why she treasures it.

Ross brings the comedy to the stage, and she makes everyone laugh with her scripted and nonscripted stuff.

Sophie is dealing with grief and the loss of a child.

She represents a  big portion of parents who deal with this every day.

She brings a rawness to the emotions and brings sadness to the room.

The whole audience was listening and feeling with her. It was beautiful to watch.

The Hilarious Jade Samuels

She was a highlight for me. Chantel (Played by Jade Samuels) is a single mother who is living off universal credit.

She is also rather funny and is highly relatable as many mothers and people must live off benefits.

Samuels brings the comedy along with Ross and has some brilliant one-liners.

You do feel sorry for her as most do when mothers say they’re single and look after their children alone.

She has a solo song about universal credit and how the government is awful which we can all agree on.

Vital Discussions around Motherhood

Esme (Played by Belinda Wollaston) is dealing with post-partum psychosis.

This is a very important topic to touch upon as many women don’t understand what they go through.

Wollaston did a brilliant job at making the audience feel as if they were going insane because that’s how she felt.

The lighting also helped with that, but her acting was incredible.

It was very sad to watch but it felt so real. It felt like you were living through it with her. She did a fantastic job!

This production showcases the different lives that mothers lead and the different things that they deal with, and it just goes to show that having a group of friends who understand you can help you through the worst times.

The Good Enough Mums Club is a brilliant show full of laughs and tears that leaves you feeling that you’re good enough, is perfectly fine.

The Good Enough Mums Club is playing at The Lowry until the 2nd of December.

You can get tickets here