2017 · Short film · Terry’s Cafe, London Bridge · Robin Linde Productions
Two mothers meet by chance in a café and end up talking about whether you can be a good woman if you might be a bad mother.
The story began on stage. Jodi Gray was asked to write a short play with King Lear as a starting point, and on rereading it she was struck by something that had never bothered her before: the mothers are simply absent. So she wrote what might have happened to the wives of Lear and Gloucester, and why they left.
I initiated the film with Robin Linde Productions and we shot it in Terry’s Cafe, a working café near London Bridge. Motherhood, and the judgement that comes with it, is rarely discussed openly, least of all by women who choose not to be the full-time carer.
Written by: Jodi Gray
Directed by: Sam Phillips
Cast: Chloe Pirrie, Robin Steegman
Initiated and produced by: Robin Linde Productions
Location: Terry’s Cafe, London Bridge