'Can Any Mother Help Me?' based on the book of the same name by Jenna Bailey, focuses on the lives of seven women who started the Co-operative Correspondence Club in response to the initial letter. The club served as a private forum where they exchanged their ideas, opinions and experiences under secret pseudonyms such as Ad Astra, Isis, Waveney, Roberta, Cotton Goods, Yonire and Angharad, for more than 50 years (see feature, 29 March 2007).
Many of the women in the club were well-educated and had had promising careers cut short by marriage and childrearing. Their letters, as brought to life on the stage, depict subjects close to their hearts - childbirth, adoption, divorce, depression and death - in a moving and sometimes humorous way.
The popular book was adapted for the stage by the Foursight Theatre Company, which specialises in women's drama.
Sarah Thom, the play's writer and director, was inspired by hearing an interview with the book's author Jenna Bailey on BBC Radio Four's 'Women's Hour' in 2007.
Ms Thom said, 'It's such a fascinating story that it made it hard to choose what stories to tell and what women to represent, without changing the narrative too much.
'The moving and incredible letters provide a slice of life which we just couldn't write ourselves.'
She said the Foursight Theatre wanted to produce a show about ordinary women following their previous show, 'Thatcher the Musical', based on the former prime minister.
'Can Any Mother Help Me?' has been well received after performances in Hereford, Wolverhampton and Leeds. The tour is moving on to Birmingham, Oxford, Ipswich, Portsmouth, Jersey, Canterbury, Shrewsbury, Kendal and Coventry, where it ends on 21 May.
For more information on the production visit www.foursighttheatre.co.uk.
