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Show helps actor with Down's syndrome remember mum

Susie Rack
BBC News, West Midlands
Joan Cummins
BBC Midlands Today
BBC A woman who has short black hair and black-framed glasses, is smiling. She is wearing a purple t-shirt and sitting in a cafe in the glass front of a theatre building.BBC
Alex says the show helps her remember her mum and she is excited to appear in it

An inclusive theatre group is starting a national tour with a family-friendly comedy looking at how a woman with Down's syndrome deals with the death of her mum.

You Know My Mum, staged by Coventry charity Ego Arts, explores grief through the real-life story of 25-year-old Alex, an actor who plays herself.

The hour-long show - the first the charity has taken on tour - also sees Alex play a bird called Bluey and sequences in which her wild imagination leads her to battle Harry Potter monsters.

She said: "It means everything that we're remembering my mum and is a happy memory for life."

Part of the production explores the relationship between Alex and her father, played by Francis Stojsavljevic who said: "The hardest part for me is performing a true story, because I know Alex's dad.

"Those emotions are real and I'm dealing with Alex, who these events actually happened to, so it's all very real and can get quite emotional."

Alex added: "It will be exciting, it will be emotional and everyone will applaud me."

A group of performers in brightly-coloured costumes on a stage. The main character, a woman, in the forefront, is dressed up as a bird in a bright yellow and blue floaty dress. The backdrop features a brightly-lit blue circle around a map and yellow sun and the stage is covered in grass and has a box from which flowers and vegetables appear to grow.
The cast features adults with learning disabilities

Ego's artistic director Georgina Egan described the "cheeky comedy", which also stars adults from a local social-care service, as "a really great, life-affirming piece of theatre".

"They may be neurodivergent, they may have physical disabilities, but they are all very talented, creative people that have got a very valid story to tell," she said.

A man with dark curly short hair and a moustache, wearing a green hoodie. He is smiling and sitting in a cafe in a glass-fronted theatre building. Tables and seats can be seen behind him.
Francis Stojsavljevic says it is "emotional" to play Alex's dad in the show

The tour starts on Friday at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre, before moving on to the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton.

There are further dates throughout May and June at venues in Stockton-on-Tees, Corby, Ellesmere Port, York, Birmingham and Bath.

Funding of £16,000 from Arts Council England has allowed the production to bring in experts in captioning and a dedicated team to ensure performances are fully accessible.

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