Sixties drama at Richmond's Georgian Theatre

VAMOS Theatre Company are back at Richmond's Georgian Theatre tomorrow night with a new mask-work show, The Best Thing, set in the Swinging Sixties and inspired, artistic director Rachael Savage reveals, by an article she read in The Guardian more than two years ago.

“It was a piece about forced adoption in the 1960s, and a group of women who had launched The Movement for an Adoption Apology,” she says. “It was looking at the pressures on young mothers who’d conceived out of wedlock and how and why they were forced to give up their babies – pressure from parents, the church, society. And how they are seeking an apology for having been coerced. One thing that amazed me was that so many women had such similar stories.

“I wanted to look at how this decision was always thought to be ‘the best thing’ and how it affected other people.”

Savage says she feels slightly bereft now the show's on tour. “It has been a hard one,” she says. “Especially for the actress who plays Susan. She’s a mother, so it’s heartbreaking to be away from her own children and then have to give away her baby on stage every night. But mask theatre doesn’t work if you don’t feel it.”

Already at work on the next show, which will look at the effects of PTSD on returning forces personnel, Savage says of her role as writer, director and maker: “It’s inspiring and interesting and I am doing what I want to do. I love it.”

* Tickets are £7 to £20. Box Office: 01748-825252 or georgiantheatreroyal.co.uk

Viv Hardwick