A dramatic night at the Orange Tree Theatre

Once we were Mothers is the current production at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. It tells the story of three mothers concurrently, these are three separate stories that do not interact, except through the use of the flexible props in which a step ladder in one story becomes a hill in another.

The mothers all face challenging (but very different) situations, one has a daughter with Down's Syndrome and a heart problem, another gets caught up in the Yugoslavian civil wars and the third has two daughters, one of whom goes shopping for sweets one day and never comes home.

All three stories are poignant but the despair of mother who loses a daughter is particularly gripping, particularly as it is so well acted by Esther Ruth Elliott and, being the Orange Tree, you are so close to the drama. It is like being in the room with her when she goes mad.

This may not sound much like entertainment, and there are few jokes in it, but the intensity of the drama in all three stories makes this an excellent night at the theatre.