The Anniversary

“I’ve always wondered why you never asked me home to meet your mum. Now I know.”

Beloved sons and bedevilled daughters-in-law gather for the annual ritual. But this year plots, schemes and secrets are lurking among the chintz. As the candles are lit and glasses raised, the party spirals into a hilarious battle of wits as Mum uses any means necessary to keep her chicks in the nest.

The Playhouse offers its own tribute to the Everyman’s 40th Anniversary with a comedy that fizzes like champagne, and cuts like a knife. Sheila Hancock, who played the young daughter-in-law in the 1966 premiere, now stars as the deliciously evil comic creation of ‘Mum’. For decades the butt of every stand-up’s routine, The Anniversary is the mother-in-law’s revenge.