Wish You Weren’t Here, Soho Theatre review

Wish You Weren’t Here, a Theatre Centre and Sheffield Theatres collaboration written by Katie Redford has been created in conversation with hundreds of young people across the country. While this is a mere 60-minute play it miraculously manages to touch on much of what is on the minds of young people today, as well as portraying the complexities of a mother-daughter relationship.

Eleanor Henderson (Lorna) and Olivia Pentelow (Mila) for Wish You Weren’t Here. Photo by Chris Saunders.

The set designed by Bethany Wells feels very Edinburgh Fringe in that it is modest, simple but cleverly effective. Three TV screens set the scenes of beach, restaurant, and games arcade. Five different height platforms are used as beds, sandy beach, clifftops, and a variety of props emerging from their holiday suitcases.

The scene is set as single Mum ,Lorna (played by Eleanor Henderson) and daughter Mila (Olivia Pentelow), arrive in Scarborough for a holiday to celebrate her GCSE results. Lorna is a mum earnestly wanting to treat her daughter and hoping for some quality time but is soon found struggling to understand why Mila can’t just enjoy the trip and have some fun instead of wishing she was elsewhere celebrating with her friends.

Olivia Pentelow (Mila). Photo by Chris Saunders.

Having scrimped and saved from her less-than-satisfactory job at a call centre Lorna has arranged a ‘premium’ room, booked a ‘proper’ restaurant, but it turns out it is not just her and Mila on this holiday as Mila pulls out a zip lock bag with her Nan’s ashes. Mila is clearly still mourning her loss of the person who she sees as more of a mum to her than her own. Scarborough is where they used to come when Mila was a child and Nan was still alive, and it is here where she wishes to scatter her ashes and say a few words which Lorna declines to do.

 A catalogue of grievances reveals themselves and it is painful to see how hard Lorna tries to keep her daughter happy. There are many unappreciated, earnest mothers who will see themselves reflected in these scenes and will identify with the difficulties of dealing with their sulky, critical, sarcastic teenage daughters they love so fiercely. We come to partially see and understand the teenage behaviors as the thoughts and doubts of a teenager seep out - concerns over plastic straws, despair at her mum’s generation’s apathy, ‘the world is on fire’ climate change concerns, how to dress and not dress, friendships, boyfriends….it is A LOT. She sends a risqué photo to her boyfriend and is clearly mortified. This story line and the struggle of Lorna’s strained relationship with her mother when she became pregnant at 16 with a mixed-race child are touched upon but cannot be delved into too much in the sixty-minute production. Not necessarily a bad thing as some things can be left to the audience’s imagination perhaps provoking extended individual thought.

Eleanor Henderson (Lorna) for Wish You Weren’t Here. Photo by Chris Saunders.

Between Henderson and Pentelow’s impeccable comic timing we see several laugh out loud exchanges as well as many touching moments while they face their challenges - the lonliness of single motherhood, the tumult of adolescence, and the perpetual quest for self-worth and how to navigate their relationship and lives. Their longing for connection and understanding bubbles on the surface throughout the play culminating in a tender moment between them. Wish You Weren’t Here has you leaving the theatre entertained, with a warm heart and contemplating the intricacies of mother-daughter bonds.

Date: 19 - February - 2 March 2024. Location: Soho Theatre, 21 Dean St, London W1D 3NE. Running time: 60 min. Price: £17.00. Book now. 

Words by Natascha Milsom