Dead Mum is a darkly funny, gut-punch cabaret about death, grief, and the chaos of losing everything at 19.
Jack’s mum is dead. This show is about her. But it’s also about him. And it’s also about you. Death is the most universal experience of the human condition. So why don’t we talk about it? Hey, why don’t we sing about it?! Dead Mum is a cabaret about death and grief, written by Jack Francis West in 2021 as a response to a world that assumed he didn’t want to talk about it. Well, it turns out he, and many others, actually do! After a sold-out development season in 2021, the show had a second life at the Sydney and Melbourne Fringe Festivals in 2022. But much like grief, Dead Mum is always evolving alongside Jack. And he’ll never be done telling this story. Part stand-up, part eulogy, and 100% emotional self-flagellation, Dead Mum is raw, funny, and stupidly honest. With a four-piece band dressed as funeral directors, Jack takes us through the year he turned 19: the year he lost his mum to liver cancer, fell into an abusive relationship, and had to reconcile with the sad, hilarious person he was becoming. Told through songs, teenage journal entries, and brutally candid storytelling, Dead Mum explores the unspoken nuances of grief and the catharsis that comes from confronting death together. Dead Mum believes that comedy doesn’t just contrast tragedy, it earns it. It’s a show that invites you to laugh in the face of death, and maybe even connect with the grief within yourself. Death doesn’t have to isolate us; it can bring us closer. And sometimes, the best way through it is to just talk about it. Or better yet, to sing.
