Four Mothers: A love letter to Irish mammies (and their gay carers)
As well as a love letter to Irish mammies, feels like a love letter to the Irish gay men who love and care for them.
A struggling novelist has to take care of three other mothers - as well as his own mum - in the funny and moving new Irish dramedy
It tells the story of an author, Edward (Scottish actor James McCardle with a flawless Irish accent) who is struggling to balance the demands of a make-or-break book tour with caring for his feisty mother (Fionnuala Flanagan). She has recently suffered a stroke, and communicates her dry sense of humour via a voice app on her iPad.
Edward is gay, and when three of his gay friends head off on a weekend Pride break, Edward is left to care for their mums too. The film is directed by Darren Thornton from a screenplay written with his brother Colin, and the siblings follow-up to their hit Irish drama
Like that film, Four Mothers is striking a chord with Irish audiences - and it’s perhaps unsurprising to learn that it was inspired by the writers’ own mother.
“Back in 2016 when we did just at the very beginning of that release, she became unwell,” says director Darren Thornton. “At first we didn't think it was anything too serious. Then quite quickly it became very serious. It's not like in the movie, where it was a stroke, it was motor neurone disease that mum had. And so very quickly she needed full time care.”
Though faced with the tragedy of losing their mother to such a life-altering disease, the family experienced moments of humour as they cared for her, too. And it was their mother which inspired the filmmakers to have Fionnaula Flanagan’s character communicate via voice app in the movie.
“Amidst all the harshness of that period there was, as there always is, moments of absurdity and that you can all share a laugh about and there was plenty of that as well,” says Thornton.
“Central to where we started with it was that she needed, at a certain point, an iPad to communicate.
"Mam was never great with spelling and stuff like that. So there was a lot of absurd moments where we'd be all standing around trying to decipher what she was saying on the iPad. She got a great kick out of this.”
Rory O’Neill (aka Panti Bliss) stars as psychotherapist Dermot in the film, and feels that part of its success is that it is resonating with the many Irish people who are caring for loved ones.
“Can I say how universal this experience is for people of certain age, because my siblings and I have been looking after my dad for over two years now,” says O’Neill. “Everything in the movie speaks so directly to me at the moment. We always got on great with my dad, my dad's a wonderful man. He’s been a great father. Even though he now has dementia, at the same time, I feel closer to him now than I ever have in my life.”
The night before, O’Neill had attended a special screening of the film with friends, one of whom is also supporting their elderly parents. “It’s such a universal experience that's so rarely on screen. I just feel so many people, even last night, you could sense it in the room, are just like: ‘I know what that is’.”
As well as a love letter to Irish mammies, feels like a love letter to the Irish gay men who love and care for them. “It's a layered portrait of Irish gay men,” observes O’Neill. “Sometimes a lot of the gay characters in movies can be so trite or surface level or whatever. I like that because gay men have all those levels to them too.
“I love the fact that essentially, almost every character in it, maybe the nurse, isn't gay, but even he, I have my suspicions! I just like it that it feels like you're in a gay world.
"I think that's fun that Darren is the one steering this ship, because most movies have gay characters that are incidental. Occasionally, there are really properly queer movies, but they also tend to sort of glamorise the existence of your queerness, and I don't think this movie does.
"It was fun to get out and do something that was a little different for me. And the weather was nice, and the people were nice.”
For Darren Thornton, telling such stories is important and personal to him - not least because it’s part of his own family experience. “I'm straight, and my brother, Colin is gay, so I'm always kind of like, am I getting something wrong with this that a queer audience is going to think this doesn't feel authentic, or doesn't feel real?
Colin’s co-creating, so he will always steer me right, but I'm still always slightly worried about it. So when it played in [London LGBTQIA+ film festival] Flare the other night, I was like am I going to be eviscerated by the gay audience at the end?”
On the contrary - those who loved the film in attendance included an old school friend who is gay, and found the film very moving. “It was lovely to hear, especially from someone who I remember being in school with and having that whole experience. It’s really important, and it's really gratifying.”
As Four Mothers, released by plays in cinemas, both Thornton and O’Neill are planning their next creative projects.
Many years after from the Thisispopbaby company, became a smash hit in Ireland before enjoying international runs in Australia, Toronto and New York, the gang - including Emmet Kirwan, Panti Bliss, Up & Over It, Lords of Strut, and The Sirens - is getting back together for another run.
" is coming back in July. I'm looking forward to that because normally, my own theatre shows are just me. It's a different experience,” says O’Neill. “I love doing big things with other people. We all thought it was dead and gone. But then there is a kind of a sense that the stuff that the show is about is actually very relevant to the world at the moment. So it's having this second little lease of life, and we'll see where that goes.”
Thornton is developing his next project and is working on a forthcoming sports comedy centred around two competing gyms where the underdogs take on the might of a top CrossFit gym. “It's like a gay Dodgeball-type thing with the two gyms going head to head.”
- is now in cinemas
