Here are translations from excerpts of 2 reviews:
The first one MAINPOST, 11th of January 2013, by Manfred Kunz:
Young mothers juggle family and career as the ingenious comedy “Molly Eyre” takes the studio stage at Würzburg’s Mainfranken Theatre
It’s not easy being a mother. Young women with children are no strangers to demands –be they related to the incompatibilities of career and family, or “merely” to the expectations of children, partners and other family members. In her comedy Molly Eyre, British-born, Berlin-dwelling author Tamsin Kate Walker homes in on this juggling act, which pushes women to extremes. In his multifaceted role as director, set and costume designer, Jürgen Weber conjured up a witty and entertaining production.
Four young mothers get together to find a new use for an empty room at their kindergarten, but their vastly different characters – based on those from Molière’s major comedies – clash at every turn: There is the “alternative” hypochondriac artist’s wife, Ranga (Anne Simmering as an incarnation of Molière’s Argan), the spiritual mother (Anna Sjöström as the hypocritical 21st century Tartuffe) the stern, frosty and impeccably dressed lawyer (Christina Theresa Motsch, who was the highlight of the evening in her perfect portrayal of Molière’s Alceste), and the author, Molly Eyre (Edith Abels with great poise). Weber repeatedly placed Molly in the audience, and had the other characters walk in and out of the auditorium, thereby turning the audience into Molière/Walker characters a part of that staging commonly known as life.
This playful approach is inherent in Walker’s text, which sees Molly make the creative process of the play a part of the play itself – a self-reflective plot device, which is not unusual for post-modern authors, but which is rarely done so coherently. It is this second level in particular that keeps the 75 minutes filled with surprising twists and turns, so that by the end of the performance, the colour and use of the kindergarten room have ceased to matter.
The main changes are between the four women, between them and their never-present partners and in their individual roles as mothers. A racy evening, highly recommendable.
The 2nd one from the Fränkische Nachrichten 12th of January 2013 by Jürgen Strein:
Molière gets a role in the kindergarten comedy
Four young mothers, each with their own personal problems, want to remodel a room at their kindergarten: Tough lawyer Celesta suggests turning it into a dance room, the permanently ill and overstretched housewife Ranga wants a meditation room, but yoga teacher Uta Treff – neither fairly nor altruistically – forces through the idea of a yoga centre. The fourth woman, the somewhat unsuccessful playwright, Molly Eyre, doesn’t care what happens with the room, because she has to write a new and play in order to kick-start her career (not to mention needing a personal success – but that applies to the other three as well).
Molly Eyre quickly recognises that the renovation story is the stuff of a play, a comedy – as is Tamsin Kate Walker’s Molly Eyre, which premiered at the Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg on Thursday… In Molly Eyre the author weaves together different layers of time and meaning. “Molly Eyre is that Greek comedy writer,” Ranga offers. The geography of the claim is off, but Molly genuinely does have something from a playwright: from Molière. And the kindergarten mothers can’t negate their literary doubles: Ranga, the imaginary invalid Argan, Uta Treff the hypocritical Tartuffe and Celeste, the misanthropic Alceste.
The plot, therefore, has a Molièresque background, and the characters are determined from the outset. But the author goes further. The notes that Molly Eyre makes during the process of renovating the room are found by her fellow re-decorators, and after an initial burst of outrage, Ranga says she would quite like Molly, rather than reality, to write her future.
In his staging, director Jürgen R. Weber adds another layer by sometimes planting his actresses amongst the audience. This lends an apparently normal play many different layers of meaning.
The piece was brought to life and filled with life by Anna Sjöström, Anne Simmering, Christina Theresa Motsch and Edith Abels. The four women, the four Molière characters, the four actresses provided the premiere audience with an intelligent and funny evening, for which there was much applause.