New play at Titchfield Festival Theatre looks at what it means to be a family

​Following hot on the heels of The Other Woman, Family Matters opens next week, continuing Titchfield Festival Theatre’s New Play Season.

What makes a family and who belongs and how do you know? Gill and Mary have been friends for decades but when Mary's husband dies the friendship is challenged and the stability of family life is rocked. The house of cards comes tumbling down but is it the end of the game?

Family Matters is a moving and funny drama about family life, set in a series of cafés and restaurants where over a cappuccino or a cream bun the characters reveal their fears, desires and hopes. The play examines what it means to be a family with some surprising results.

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Janette Evans is the writer and director of Family Matters and also directed Midlife Crisis at TFT last year.

She says: ‘Everyone has a family, in some shape or form and I wanted to explore what family means to us. It’s a term we use quite lightly but also has deeper and often controversial meanings.

‘I set the play in three different places, designed for sitting, eating and talking. I invite the audience to overhear the conversations at the table. I’m sure more than one of us has done this in real life.

‘Mary and Gill may not be family but who do you turn to when your "real” family are falling apart? Family Matters but even families have a breaking point.’

Family Matters is on at TFT from February 6-11.

Go to titchfieldfestivaltheatre.com or contact the box office on 0333 666 3366.