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A Family Outing – 20 Years On

Ursula Martinez

— ,The Pit

Twenty years after bringing her parents onstage in the sublime A Family Outing, Ursula Martinez attempts to recreate the show, without her Dad, and with a mother who can no longer remember her lines.

Absorbed in wryly honest and frank conversation, a mother and daughter expose the banalities, hilarity, foibles and frustrations of their relationship. Contrasting past and present, they bicker, cajole and encourage each other through this endearingly ad hoc, entertaining and ultimately uplifting performance.
  
Since the ‘truly hilarious’ (Independent on Sunday) original premiered in 1998, Martinez has turned 50, her father Arthur has passed away and her mother Mila has been diagnosed with early stage dementia. Through a canny interplay with the first production, this bracingly funny recreation blurs the lines between artifice and reality while grappling with who we are and what happens to us as time marches on. 

Tagged with: Theatre & dance Life Rewired

Duration: 1 hour, no interval
Age guidance: 14+
 

Co-commissioned by the Barbican, SICK! Festival and Perth Festival

‘Beautiful, delicate work, a show that hides how craftily it is constructed and how deeply it is felt behind a bright and breezy veneer. I loved it‘
Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor App
‘Tender, joyful, and poignant‘
Leigh Andrew Hill, Out in Perth (4.5 stars)
‘A moving, tender mediation on the passage of time‘
The Australian
‘It’s funny and touching and, by the end, richly meaningful‘
Mark Naglazas, Seasaw
‘Absolutely charming … utterly engaging‘
Scotsman on A Family Outing (1998)

Part of Life Rewired

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Vybarr Cregan-Reid considers how the way we use tools changes the way we look, as part of our Life Rewired Reads series. 

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With thanks

The Pit