GET UP MUM
by Justin Heazlewood
Writer & Performer: Justin Heazlewood
Director: Chris Drummond
Lighting Designer: Neil Simpson
Sound Designer: Mick Jackson
Props Maker: Anto dal Santo
It’s Burnie, Tasmania 1992. Justin is an only child living with his mother who suffers from schizophrenia. When she is well, Mum is perfect. She knows he likes his carrots raw and his toast cooled, and she knows how to sooth his growing pains. But when she is sick she cries uncontrollably and never gets out of bed.
Funny and sad in equal measure, Get Up Mum is a nostalgic rollercoaster ride of cassettes, caravans and coming of age. An only child and his Mum are trying to love each other but mental illness keeps getting in the way.
Triple-threat Justin Heazlewood AKA The Bedroom Philosopher writes, composes and performs. It’s a show-and-tell crossed with a live radio play as Justin talks with the tapes of his childhood, the soundtrack to a never-ending story.
Watch the video.
Reviews
“Equal parts heart warming and heart wrenching, Get Up Mum is both a funny time capsule of one year in a teenage boy’s life mixed with a very adult and very tragic tale of a young boy forced to deal with his Mum’s severe mental illness.”
— Myf Warhurst
“Justin Heazlewood has written something so bloody important and special with this book. One of the most big-hearted—and heart-bruising—books you’ll read.”
— Benjamin Law.