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Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths

A snake will always find a way in. And he has. We’ve been sleeping so long that he’s had a feast… And this snake has been devouring them all whilst you and I are asleep in the next room. We’ve been standing on their tiny bones the entire time.

With unseen ‘little mouths’ and the belching fumes of the local refinery as a backdrop, we find ourselves in the beguiling world of Ma and Pa who spend their time exchanging extraordinary and fantastic stories…until suddenly there is a knock at the door…


The critical consensus

While challenging, McCormick’s work is always creative and utterly captivating.

****(*)Lauren Humphreys, The Reviews Hub, 04/05/2018

A wonderfully compact story with a great deal of intrigue and suspense.

****(*)Natalie O'Donoghue, Broadway Baby, 05/05/2018

Challenges aside, the gallows humour is delivered with great success by the brilliant cast, and many of the lines are well crafted to maximise hilarity, keeping the audience laughing throughout.

****(*)Glenys McIntyre, The Wee Review, 07/05/2018

A living comic strip that is both brutal and troublingly hilarious.

****(*)Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 07/05/2018

Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths offers a memorable 70 minutes of comedy and nightmare; and a glimpse of a domestic madness that seems both utterly bizarre, and – in the age of Trump and Putin –strangely familiar.

****(*)Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, 08/05/2018

Surrealism and wit abound in Martin McCormick's esoteric domestic comedy.

***(*)(*)Rachel Walker, The List, 08/05/2018

A delightfully discomfiting work of absurdism.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage, 14/05/2018

Bleakly comic and thoroughly unpredictable.

****(*)Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre, 18/05/2018

It's a dark, funny, often surreal and at times excessively absurd play, which initially lacks momentum but soon builds to an uncomfortable crescendo as stories of past and present crash together, and little mouths appear in more places than you might expect.

***(*)(*)Elaine Reid, The Skinny, 18/05/2018

McCormick’s crazy, comic, disturbing yet compelling piece.

****(*)Irene Brown, Edinburgh Guide, 18/05/2018

Like the elusive snake, this is a play whose meaning and import is difficult to grasp, yet whose impact remains long after it has finished.

David Pollock, Exeunt, 21/05/2018


Features about Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths

Martin McCormick--Ma, Pa and the Little Mouths

Neil Cooper, Coffee-Table Notes, 03/05/2018

Where and when?

Tron Theatre, Glasgow from Thursday May 3, 2018, until Saturday May 12, 2018. More info: www.tron.co.uk

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Wednesday May 16, 2018, until Saturday May 19, 2018. More info: www.traverse.co.uk

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