English (Core) · Ch 14 — Mother's Day
Summary of the Play
Summary of the Play
The whole action takes place one autumn afternoon in the living-room of the Pearsons' suburban house in London.
The problem
Mrs Annie Pearson, a pleasant but worried woman in her forties, is having her fortune told by her neighbour, Mrs Fitzgerald — an older, heavier woman with a strong, rather sinister personality and a deep Irish voice. Mrs Fitzgerald bluntly tells her to "put your foot down, once an' for all, an' be the mistress of your own house." Mrs Pearson admits that her husband George and her two grown children, Doris and Cyril, treat her like a servant, but she loves them and hates any unpleasantness — she simply cannot bring herself to "have it out" with them.
The magic exchange
Mrs Fitzgerald offers to sort out the family — "not as me — as you." She proposes that the two women change bodies using a spell she "learnt out East." Grasping hands, she mutters "Arshtatta dum — arshtatta lam..." and the personalities swap. Now Mrs Pearson's body holds the bold, dominating Mrs Fitzgerald, while the timid Mrs Pearson personality is trapped in Mrs Fitzgerald's body and is sent off next door.
The family gets a shock
The new, tough "Mrs Pearson" then deals with the family one by one. She sits smoking and playing cards, refuses to iron Doris's yellow silk dress or to get tea ready, and calmly criticises Doris's boyfriend Charlie Spence. She tells Cyril she will not do his mending and announces she is joining the family's own "movement" — a forty-hour week with two days off at the weekend, drinking stout in the afternoon. She stuns George by telling him that at his beloved club they secretly laugh at him and call him "Pompy-ompy Pearson" — and Cyril confirms it. The children, frightened, wonder if their mother has hurt her head or gone "barmy."