Mother & Son at Canberra Theatre Centre

By Benjamen Judd

Buy Tickets

One of Australian television’s most iconic relationships, Mother & Son, has hit the stage at the Canberra Theatre Centre, running from Wednesday February 4 until Saturday February 7 for a limited number of shows.

Anyone who has either a penchant for nostalgia or was born before 1985 probably remembers the poignant yet strangely hilarious Australian sitcom Mother and Son. A multiple award winning series starring Garry McDonald and Ruth Cracknell in the title roles, the show’s premise of a divorced son forced to care for his ageing mother with increasing dementia was an unexpected hit amongst Australian audiences.

Directed by Roger Hodgman and written by Geoffrey Atherden (who incidentally was also the creator of the original series), this fresh, up-to-the-moment version of the beloved Logie Award-winning show finds longsuffering second son Arthur Beare hoping for the chance, at long last, to take a few weeks away and pursue a little fling with his new flame, Anita. However, his philandering brother, Robert, and manipulative mother, Maggie, have other plans.

Mother & Son reinvigorates a treasured Australian comedy icon with Atherden’s distinctive brand of acerbic wit, mixing together the sweet, the sharp, the savage and the sad in Maggie and Arthur’s complex, dysfunctional relationship.

Mother & Son will show at the Canberra Theatre Centre from Wednesday February 4 until Saturday February 7.