The production was a critical hit in the US and in London’s Off West End and features Solomon as both mother and son in a performance our reviewer called “amazing, riveting and moving!”  The play's now being performed at Oval House Theatre until 29 May and we urge you to see it.

We caught up with Solomon to find out more

Tell us a little about the play, what can we expect?
A two character play, acted by one actor. There is Bradley, a twenty-something year old gay man and his mother, Mindy, who is still trying to set her son up with a nice girl. The inciting incident is the son's coming out. As he leaves the closet, his mother goes into her own closet as the parent of a gay child.

The play is unique in that explores in depth this other coming out journey. The people who love us go through a lot of the same feelings many of us did as young gay people (though hopefully that is changing more and more with increased acceptance and visibility.) Denial, fear, shame, growing understanding and hopefully (as with my mom) full acceptance - but not before having to wrestle with homophobia - one's own and the society's.

Audiences and critics find the show very funny and moving.

What was your original inspiration for Mother / Son?
My mom and I marched together in a gay pride parade, her idea. It was a really wonderful, life-changing experience. I will never forget it. But it seemed like a miracle we ever got to that day. I wanted to write about this journey my mom and many other families make. To me, they are true embodiment of ‘family values’.

So how much of the play is autobiographical?
50-72%. You'll have to ply me with liquor after the show if you want to find out which are the ‘true’ bits!

How did you set about writing Mother / Son?
The play was born out of my conversations with my mom over a period of years after I came out. She, desperately trying to understand and sometimes change my gay identity. Me, passionately trying to be understood and sometimes resenting the need to justify my life.

"Explain it to me again," she would ask me, when I would give her news of some new love interest. "How do you actually know you're gay?" And I would heave a frustrating sigh, because no matter how many times I had tried to explain to her the instinctual nature of my innermost romantic feelings, here we were back at zero.

Then she would ply me with all the usual arguments: "If you've never had sexual intercourse with a girl, how do know you wouldn't like that more?" … "But if everyone was gay there would be no people." … "This is such a difficult life. Why would you chose this?" … "But even the bible says it wrong."

The biblical argument infuriated me the most. We were twice-a-year-Jews who headed straight from Yom Kippur services in our temple finery, to secretly violate the ritual fast at the International House of Pancakes on bacon!

"The play was born out of my conversations with my mom over a period of years after I came out. She, desperately trying to understand and sometimes change my gay identity. Me, passionately trying to be understood and sometimes resenting the need to justify my life."

How did your mum’s reaction make you feel?
While some of our talks were annoying to me, even insulting, I realize now that Mom was doing her best to understand and accept. Homosexuality was something she simply had no reference point for. The references she did have were sad and outdated – the Boys in the Band film or a dark gay bar on the left bank of Paris she and my father visited on their honeymoon. After the drag show the maitre de whispered to them, "Leave this place you don't belong here…these men may look happy, but it's pretend, they lead sad, lonely lives."

Nothing in her experience told her that it was possible for me to have a happy, fulfilling life. Until I met Bill and fell in love with him and she saw how happy I was and she fell in love with him too. Suddenly, she understood and I never had to explain again.

Were you always intending to act in the play as well as write it?
Yes, I love acting, but I don't audition. It's not my thing and I thought this talented actor really needs a job and I gave him one.

So how's your relationship with your mother now? Has she seen the show?
Mom is sadly, passed away. The play was also born out of that silence. Trying to remember and recreate the way in which we communicated. My mom's voice, her sense of humour is definitely present in the play. Performing the play is sometimes rather like visiting with my Mom.

You take on the roles of both Mother and Son in the production. What's it like to flip between the two characters?
It's a roller coaster ride. It's fun. Especially when the play really gets cooking and mother and son argue. I really miss that passionate anger that only a mother could incite.

I know that sounds really weird, but when friends of mine roll their eyes at their annoying, nosy, manipulative mothers - I always miss mine. No one quite made me as angry as Mom. And of course, no-one loved me as much.

The play is perfect for worried parents of gay and lesbian children. Did you ever intend the piece to be a helpful guide to the coming out process?
Though I didn't intend it, I am delighted by the excitement the play has generated by grassroots and educational orgs across the US and internationally. I have performed the play for PFLAG chapters all over the US. This is the support group for parents and families of gays. In UK, the sister group is called FFLAG. I perform the show at many universities and secondary schools. Quite a few youth clubs are coming to see the play in London, including Terrence Higgins Trust.

The biggest thrill and honor I get is when someone comes to the show with their parents, but even more so when they see the show and then go home and call their parents. I get email from audience members who have told me, "After your show, I went home and called my mom or dad, and I told them I wanted to talk more about my life with them."

When my mom's bravery in talking to me about my life can inspire others..it doesn't get any better than that.

You performed Mother / Son during Brighton and Hove Pride and your London season also coincided with London Pride. Are you a bit of Pride groupie?!
I just love to see what happens when Queer London and Brighton don their sequins, tiaras and muscle tees!

So what does Pride mean to you and why is it important to celebrate Gay Pride?
When you are fabulous, and beautiful, you need a parade. No, but seriously, I think it's easy for those of us who have been to a lot of pride parades to be a bit jaded. But I think it's important to remember that until we are done with gay shame and oppression, we will not be done with pride.

Try to see a pride parade from the eyes of a gay immigrant newly arriving to London from a place where being gay is severely persecuted like Iran or Jamaica, or a youth who has never seen that many openly gay folks, or a parent who is marching with child for the very first time. It is a wonder and a marvel.

"Nothing in her experience told her that it was possible for me to have a happy, fulfilling life. Until I met Bill and fell in love with him and she saw how happy I was and she fell in love with him too. Suddenly, she understood and I never had to explain again."

Mother / Son has now been performed all over the world? Has British audiences reacted very differently to the play to US audiences?
No. The wonderful man who is responsible for getting me here to the UK and co-producing Mother / Son, Shahar Kazara of Start Direct, saw in the play a great universality and knew it would fly with British audiences the moment he read it, and endeavoured to get me here.

The critical and audience response has been wildly enthusiastic across the board. I was amused that the play was described in Leeds as "controversial" because there's nothing in it that's really controversial. I do have one line about a vagina that US audiences always howl at, while UK audiences only titter discreetly. But maybe that's because I'm performing in Hampstead and not Soho. I heard they love vaginas in Soho - or am i getting that wrong?

So what would you like audiences to take with them after having seen Mother / Son?
I want you to be utterly transported. To laugh your ass off. To be greatly moved. Everything I pray for every time I attend the theatre as an audience member. And then if you call your Mom when you get home from the theatre, that's good too.

And finally, what's next for Jeffrey Solomon?
My other one man show, Santa Claus is Coming Out a documentary theatre piece about the true story of Santa Claus, will be appearing in New York this fall and winter. Oh, you didn't hear? Santa is gay, in love with a certain Italian toymaker and Mrs. Claus is his beard, a third rate actress hired by Coca-Cola to keep all the workshop sponsors happy. The play is about when happens when Santa's secret is revealed and the hysteria that follows as the religious right perceives an attempt by the gay agenda to recruit the world's children into homosexuality.

Read Our Review Of Mother / Son »
Click to find out our thoughts on Jeffrey Solomon's semi-autobiographical play.

Mother / Son, written and performed by Jeffrey Solomon
Oval House Theatre
52-54 Kennington Oval
London, SE11 5SW
020 7582 7680 / www.ovalhouse.com

11-29 May 2010