Family Matters: a moving and funny drama about family life

Family Matters – but does it? And what is a family? Family Matters opens on February 6 as part of Titchfield Festival Theatre’s New Play Season.
Family Matters is the latest production in Titchfield Festival Theatre’s New Play Season.

We asked writer and director Janette Evans to talk about the play, her fifth for TFT.

“Writing a new play is always an adventure as I’m never totally sure where the characters are going to take me. I know I like the play when the characters have their own voice and sometimes they can say things I wasn’t expecting.

‘Family Matters’ is not a female only play, unlike some of my other plays. The male characters are strong and emotional. They bring another dimension while the female characters are really different from each other. The similarity with my other plays is that the story is character driven and involves a twist or two.

Everyone has a family, in some shape or form and I wanted to explore what family means to us. It’s a term we use quite lightly but also has deeper and often controversial meanings. I set the play in three different places, designed for sitting, eating and talking. I invite the audience to overhear the conversations at the table. I’m sure more than one of us has done this in real life.

Mary and Gill are two of the characters who meet to share a drink and usually a piece of cake. They have known each other since primary school but have led quite different lives – the type of friend you’ve known forever, not always best buddies but a closeness that comes from familiarity, a bit like family

A point people often make about my plays is how much they related to it. One lady even asked me once if I’d hidden a camera in her house! I think people will enjoy the play because they will relate to it and it will take them on a path that will have them laughing and crying while surprising them.

Family Matters is obviously a play on words and at the end of the play I guess what will matter to some, is what matters were exposed, and for others the only thing that matters is family.”