The Scummy Mummies, Helen and Ellie, are back in town with their take on life for the 21st century mum. And it's a lot saucier than you might think...
Sometimes you see someone identify, target, and plug a gap in the market, and you think ‘good on you, well done.’ Scummy Mummies have done just that. Twelve years of Podcasting, and touring their sketches, song & dance routines based around motherhood, has seen them monopolise a comedy demographic, rarely targeted… your mum.
A packed-out Playhouse of 98% mothers, who are normally dealing with bedtime stories, packed lunches, and school uniforms for tomorrow, having managed to get out of the house, are primed and ready for the laugh out loud comedy show that awaits them. Introduced by video on a big screen that shows them for the shambolic, peri-menopausal women they are, they take the stage in Liam Gallagher-esque parkas which they reveal are wild swimming coats. As part of their diversity initiative, two token men are introduced to each other. Asked what football team they supported and what kind of porn they prefer? Unsure what the audience found more shocking when their replies included Notts County and Granny porn to the respective questions.
Their show is refreshingly female and mumsie. But don’t let that fool you, they are as irreverent, sweary and as blue as The Big Yin. Their sketches, stand-up, song, and dance routines, are all delivered with the chaotic energy that gets the kids to school on time, properly dressed, without the teachers calling the social workers. There is a wonderful synergy between Australian Helen Thorn and second-generation comedian Ellie Gibson. It is testament to a genuine joy at what they do. They are rehearsed yet chaotic. Prepared yet improvised, as they race through a hi-octane laughter-filled evening with an intoxication normally associated with cheap Prosecco.
The Scummy Mummies range of sex aids are as inventive as they are practical
The costumes were fabulous, with more vista-quick wardrobe costume changes, than you’d get at a Lady Gaga show. The highlight being two hairy, glittery, super-sized labias dancing like one of Father Jack’s alcohol-fuelled dreams. They conjure the world of motherhood and parenting in a sisterly, yet slapstick manner. Nothing is off the table. From Zoflora disinfectant to the bitches running the PTA. The traumatic contents of the laundry basket, but the biggest laughs went to the Ofsted-appointed, hot male teacher and the perils of volunteering for the School Parents App. Their irreverence extends to their own versions of song and dance classics like Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out of Your Bed, D: Reams Mums Can Only Get Bitter and The Shamen’s Ebeneezer Knees are Bad. TV classic Mastermind becomes Mastermum with hilarious answers from Mum, Dad, and the teenage son.
The Scummy Mummies range of sex aids are as inventive as they are practical, with dual purposes, resulting in a theatre full of laughing women laughing at themselves. Laughing at their ever-changing bodies, family issues, men’s faults, divorce and their struggles around sex, menopause and babies becoming teenagers in a blink of an eye. This celebration of motherhood ends in the crowning of a punter who won the audience generated “How Scummy a Mummy I Am Confession Competition.” They turn it up to eleven and the Playhouse erupts in a singalong, hands in the air, clapping finale, reminiscent of kicking out time of a Hen Party the local Bottomless Brunch & Prosecco Bar.
Scummy Mummies have filled a gap in the market and the world is a better place for it.
Scummy Mummies – Hot Mess performed at the Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday 10th of June, 2025.
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