Stick Granny on the Roof-Rack
Edinburgh Evening News
SUN, sea and sand. Here's the perfect antidote to end-of-year blues for those who know full well what's behind them. And it's not panto!
It's the MsFits again. That's Rona Munro writing the words with Fiona Knowles giving them comic interpretation on stage. And this gentle riff on family life sees Knowles creating three generations of a family on their holiday of a lifetime.
This is the holiday that Marie has been waiting for. She won it herself, but the hard- hearted competition company won't give her a holiday for one. It's a family holiday. So out-of-work husband Graham, nippy mother-in-law Nan and irksome last teenage daughter Kate all have to come too.
So while this might not be pantomime, it certainly has its seasonal echoes. Here's a family all cooped up together, all doing their own thing, and all hating every moment of it.
Marie is so tied up with looking after her family that she hasn't a moment to herself. She dreams she's in one of those urban myths where granny dies, but the family don't want to stop having fun so they bundle up the corpse and stick it on the roof-rack for safe keeping. Except the car gets stolen.
This compulsive woman, stretched to the point of breaking, is an all too recognisable creation from Munro and Knowles which, along with the familiar little traits of those around her, allows you to get right down and sympathise with her plight as she describes the horrors of family life.
Then it all changes, deliciously, as the spotlight switches to Nan. While Marie stomps off down to the beach , Nan goes searching for something on the roof-rack of the car. And the story we get from her is a slightly different take on family life to Marie's revelations.
Better is to come as Nan is left falling asleep in the car park and Knowles gets to continue the narrative from Kate's point of view.
This spiky adolescent has exactly enough of a persecution complex to make her funny . And her take on life is an instantly recognisable one.
While there's no fairy dust, drag or deformed old hag, this is just the sort of treat that keeps you chuckling long after Knowles has taken her bow.
Thom Dibdin
The Woolminster Journal
A Comic, Compassionate Catastrophe
The MsFits Theatre Company came to the Woolstore Theatre at Codford last month with their production of Stick Granny on the Roof-Rack.
Marie won a 'holiday of a lifetime' on a scratch card, promising sun, sea and sand on an exotic island paradise.
The winning card said it all. The heaven - an all expenses paid fortnight in a luxury hotel, and the hell - for all the family.
Take one everyday family, heat to 36 degrees, cover in sun tan oil, leave in a hired car to cook, then stand back and watch as years of family tensions boil over in an hilarious mix of laughter and tears.
Fiona Knowles took the audience on a comic, compassionate catastrophe of family relationships.
In this one-woman show Fiona changes from mother to granny to teenage daughter with total ease. She had just a few props to aid a superb and totally convincing performance.
During the show the audience were rocking with laughter one moment and in the next you could have heard a pin drop.
The evening was a real treat.
Derek Miles
Strathspey and Baddenoch Herald
The compassionate catastrophe of family relationships was captured in its full glory with the return to Carrbridge on Saturday by award winning actress Fiona Knowles with her new comedy drama Stick Granny on the Roof-Rack.
Playing to a packed village hall audience, Fiona launched into a captivating and colourful account of what should have been a holiday of a lifetime.
Sun, sea and sand - an exotic island paradise. Marie won it on a scratch card. The winning card said it all.
The heaven - an all expenses paid fortnight in a luxury hotel. The hell - it's a holiday for all the family.
Following on from previous hits including Love and Money and Sex and Chocolate, Fiona Knowles proved the teaming up with award winning playwright Rona Munro to be yet another guaranteed sure-fire success.
Welcomed on stage with her return to Carrbridge greeted by warm hearted applause, Fiona launched into the hour and a half tale with professional practice and radiant flourish.
As Marie she told of how the excitement of the scratch card win turned so haplessly pear shaped.
As Gran she explained exactly how she came to be stuck on the roof-rack and how she was saved by her 'you never know when you might need it' life jacket buoyancy aid.
And, as Katy, the daughter who's never quite left home, there came the teenager's perspective of an unfathomable and confusing adult world.
One actress, three generations and a sparkling well plotted script blistering with wit.
It was a fast-moving performance with Fiona skipping through the tale effortlessly switching from mum to daughter and to gran and back with hardly a breathcatching pause.
It was fun, it struck many a familiar chord and there were those in the full house audience left shaking with laughter with their eyes streaming with tears.
All in all a great night out and a wonderful light hearted view of the oft so mundane routines and commitments of family life.
LJ