Driven mad by grief

The huge explosion in gun crime is behind Judd Batchelor's fictional one-woman show, about a mother who loses her adored 17-year-old son Gavin in a lethal teenage spat.

Sitting on a bed, which, we later discover, is inside a psychiatric ward, Batchelor's character recounts the significant moments in her son's life - from his first day at school, to his first A grade in history, to discovering, much to her fury, that he is having sex.

The image, repeatedly enforced with warmth and humour in Batchelor's thoroughly likeable performance, is that of a son bought up in a loving, normal family - until two shots ring out and Gavin (cleverly represented through his discarded clothes in Susie McKenna's intimate production) becomes yet another teenage statistic.

It's at this point that Batchelor's play reveals its limitations. Her desire to give voice to the deranged - and largely silent - grief of the mothers left behind is expressed through a horribly dubious method. Driven almost mad by pain, Batchelor executes an implausible revenge that absurdly embodies the tit-for-tat mentality that part-perpetuates teenage murders in the first place.

Grief is one thing; what this subject badly needs - and theatre is an ideal platform to provide it - is questions. McKenna's production ends with a short montage documenting the brief lives of London's murdered teenagers. It's a dignified moment in a play that is otherwise hidebound by the inadequate nature of its response.

A Mother Speaks
Hackney Empire Studio Theatre
Mare Street, E8 1EJ