Hi, Mum!
★★★★☆ A delightful death
Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236): Mon 11 – Sat 16 Aug 2025
Review by Tom Ralphs
Making very effective use of a small stage in an intimate venue, Pierrot Productions’ show Hi, Mum! takes the audience into a room in an undertakers where the body of Alba and Elspeth Brae’s mother lies wrapped in a shroud.
Her desire not to be buried in a coffin means that the table on which the main prop, a woodcarved corpse created by Rick Giujusa, sits centre stage and is unavoidable for the two sisters even before it is unwrapped to the horror of Alba who is seeing her mother for the first time in several years.
Mhairi Gilmour in Hi, Mum! Pic: Tamara Al-Bassam.
The subject of death and the rituals and absurdities surrounding funerals is handled wonderfully in Tamara Al-Bassam’s script with a mix of awkwardness, respect and bemusement defining the sister’s responses to what sits in front of them and what they have to do.
Mhairi Gilmour as Elspeth captures the shy, tentative nature of the sister lured back home by her mother, and giving up her course and more to attempt to connect with a mother she had not been close to. As Alba, Kirsty Young plays off this, giving a strident portrayal of the elder independent sister.
clear bond
The play steers away from being a straight story of estranged sisters, or one sister’s rejection of a mother that the other stayed with, thanks to the revelations of the problems each of them had with her, their different responses to this, and the cause of the tension between them. There is a clear bond between the sisters as they come to terms with their past and their mother which is refreshing to see and expertly handled through the understated direction of director and dramaturg Jen McGregor.
Kirsty Young and Mhairi Gilmour in Hi, Mum! Pic: Tamara Al-Bassam.
The unobtrusive music and lighting provided by Harry Harris and Eliza Jayne Gilroy allows the script and performances to be the main focus of the 50 minute show.
Al-Bassam stops short of giving the reasons why both sisters initially left home, limiting this instead to character traits rather than specifics, which is the only frustration with the script as it does at times limit how far the conversation and relationship between the sisters can develop. Overall, however, this is a charming and reflective piece of new writing.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval).
Greenside @ George Street (Fern Studio), The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George Street EH2 2PQ (Venue 236).
Monday 11 – Saturday 16 August 2025.
Daily: 12.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Instagram: @tamara.al.bassam
Mhairi Gilmour and Kirsty Young in Hi, Mum! Pic: Tamara Al-Bassam.
ENDS
