How much

MOTHER’S Day is fast approaching and what better time to watch a play that reminds us what mums do for their young.

Or don’t.

A mother’s love may be unconditional, but as the kids get older the devotion comes with a few conditions attached.

That’s the theme of this week’s Oran Mor play, Gap Years, written by Gavin Smith.

Starring Tom Marshall, Nicola Roy and Vari Sylvester, it tells the story of Geraldine (Vari), who has plans for her retirement.

She and her friend Tom are all set to take off on a fabulous holiday to China to make the most of her free time but her daughter Louise has other ideas.

Louise thinks Mum is the answer to all her childcare problems.

But when does the time arrive when parental responsibility can be parked in order to let someone live their own life?

“It’s a modern dilemma play,” says London-based Tom, who is making his first Oran Mor appearance.

“The daughter has a child but she has to go back to work. So what can she do about child care?

“If she can get a nursery place can she even afford it?”

Mum and daughter may have a great love that runs deep, but they don’t have a great day-to-day relationship.

Tom’s character Peter is the peacekeeper.

“My job is to stop it all going nuclear,” he says, grinning. “I have help work out what one is prepared to give up for the other.”

He adds, with a knowing smile; “In my own life, (he has three grown up children) there is a fair amount l will do but I don’t want to be raising more children at my age.”

Tom brings a massive amount of experience to his Play, Pie and a Pint role.

His childhood was spent in Cyrus with his family (his father was a weather forecaster) and they moved to England and then to Broxburn in West Lothian.

“That was a culture shock,” says Tom with some understatement. The family then moved to Edinburgh where the seeds of acting were planted.

“I was always an ill child, with bronchitis, in bed a lot and I was capitated by film. To pass the time I’d create little scenarios, gangsters talking, that sort of thing.

“One day, I was twelve, I was in my granny’s house and a guy was there who heard me doing the voices.

“He said ‘Was that you just talking to you?’ And I said ‘Yeh.’ And he was really impressed. He said ‘I’ve never heard anything like that.’ He was amazed.

“And his endorsement really stuck with me.”

Tom went on to audition for Glasgow’s RSAMD, but didn’t make it.

Undaunted he worked as a stage hand in theatre and eventually landed work at the Citizens’ in Glasgow, as an Assistant Stage Manager (Small Parts).

He loved his chance to appear on stage and in the late sixties followed this up with a move to London to study at drama college.

“I had a baby face, and long hair, and I did all right,” he recalls of the period, going on to appear in films such as Upstairs Downstairs and There’s A Girl In My Soup.

But did the sixties swing for him? “Yes,” he says, grinning. “But the great time for me really was going on to the Royal Court, working with talent such as Bill Bryden and Lindsay Anderson, Ken Cranham and Jack Shepherd.

Tom appeared in the 1971 film Revenge with Joan Collins, in which he had to rape the Hollywood star. “It was such crap,” he says, grinning.

But it was experience. Tom, who is married to actress Tamara Hitchcock, went on to work with the National theatre.

He has had great fun appearing on stage with the likes of Denis Lawson and Tim Curry. He’s been in the West End several times, including a whopping 14 months in a play called When Did You Last See Your Trousers, by Ray Galton and John Antrobus.

And early eighties TV series World’s End proved a nice earner.

Overall, work has appeared fairly constantly.

“But I’m an Oran Mor virgin,” he says. “Another new adventure to enjoy.”

• Gap Year, Oran Mor, until Saturday.