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Brendan O'Carroll: How Now Mrs Brown Cow

Brendan O’Carroll: How Now Mrs Brown Cow
Opera House
April 28, 2010

At the end of the show Brendan O’Carroll jokes with the audience that he toyed with calling this latest instalment of Mrs Brown, “I know a fecking band wagon when I see one.”

It’s true that audiences can’t get enough of his alter-ego Mrs Brown, but it’s good to see that their loyalty isn’t being taken for granted.

Here, in what he comically calls the fifth of the Mrs Brown trilogy, O’Carroll has delivered another sure fire winner.

If you’ve not seen the earlier shows, like a great sitcom, it’s easy to follow as a stand alone story. Indeed, the BBC has recently commissioned Mrs Brown and her Boys as a sitcom starting January. So, if you’re not familiar with it already, no doubt you soon will be.

However, much of the delight of any Mrs Brown show is the spontaneity of live performance. And, like pantomime, the audience relish fluffed lines as an opportunity to experience O’Carroll’s lightening speed ad libs and see a cast, in stitches, enjoying the show as much as them.

As always, the action is set in Mrs Brown’s sitting room and kitchen. Irish mammy, Mrs Brown is preparing for Christmas, excited at the thought of welcoming her son Trevor home after four years in America.

Within this, of course, there is all the mayhem and raucous humour we’ve come to expect. Poor Grandad becomes the guinea pig for Winnie’s latest money making venture; Mrs Brown electrocutes herself with Cathy’s tazer while Dermot and Buster find work as penguins.

It’s bawdy in parts, with a fair spattering of foul language, but there is also something innocent and comic book about the humour, which hits the funny bone every time.

Mrs Brown is guaranteed laugh out loud funny throughout, which is why audiences keep coming back for more. This time, however, O’Carroll also throws in some surprisingly touching moments. The result is a Mrs Brown whose big heart matches the size of her mouth, and we love her all the more for it.

How Now Mrs Brown Cow is at The Opera House until May 8, 2010.

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