The Story of M (1995)

The Story of M

by

SuAndi

Institute for Contemporary Art

The Story of M is a one-woman show (monodrama) written from the perspective of M (Mam), a white working-class woman from Liverpool, remembering her life and in particular her experiences bringing up dual heritage children in Manchester in the 1960s. The play describes her childhood in the 1920s, the racism she saw the Black community experience and, as the play progresses, the social changes she witnessed includin the social exclusion she faced for marrying a Nigerian man and having dual heritage children. As the play's author SuAndi observes:

Peace had come to England but as with other women who had formed relationships with Africans and Caribbeans, the streets were everyday battle zones of moral judgement.

M also recalls the long hours she worked to provide a safe home and nice clothes for her children and the pleasure she took in defying the expectations and prejudices of hostile neighbours.

The play is set in a hospital ward where M is being treated for cancer and family photographs and newspaper articles are projected onto the wall as a backdrop to the events described. The play was created by poet and writer SuAndi and has an immediate and direct style of writing that fuses the lyricism of poetry with the rhythms of everyday speech.

The inspiration for the play came from the final poem SuAndi was performing on her first tour ‘This is all I have to say’. SuAndi recalls:

It ended with a poem dedicated to women like my Mum. On the train home Lois Keidan [co-director of the ICA], over the phone, gave me her critique. I didn’t agree with all she said but so appreciated everything she said. The last poem in the production was a dedication to white women [who were mothers] of Black children. It covered the often rejection by their families and society.

Not literally, but Lois told me to write about what I knew best. What I knew best was my own mother.

The train from London to Manchester took much longer then, anything from three to five hours and that was without any hold ups (leaves on the lines). Looking back, I think I wept from the Midlands to the Northwest, so by the time I was back at Piccadilly station The Story of M was more or less finished.

SuAndi was the first woman to play the role of M. The show has been restaged many times since across England, America sometimes with SuAndi in the role and sometime

The play has been published three times, recorded for DVD and adopted onto the GCSE curriculum.

About the writer

SuAndi is a poet, playwright, performer and curator of Black arts and culture. Born in Hulme, she is based in Manchester but has worked around the world.

In the 1980s she began performing her poetry in Manchester and working at Cultureword alongside fellow poet Lemn Sissay. In the mid 1980s she, along with other members of BlackScribe (the Black women��s poetry collective), joined the Black Arts Alliance, an organisation set up to counter the lack of support for Black artists available through national organisations. In 1999 she was awarded an O.B.E for her contribution to the Black Arts sector.

Through BAA, she curated and presented a series of events and research programmes profiling and supporting Black artists and activities. From 2001 to 2007 she curated theActs of Achievement festival for Black History Month, a major feature of the North West arts calendar, bringing together poetry, theatre, film and visual arts.

In October 2025 Leaning Against Time, a selection of SuAndi’s poems and her libretto for the opera Mary Seacole was published by Carcanet Press.

Resources

Extract from The Story of M

Read and listen to SuAndi discussing the making of The Story of M in this feature from the Mixed Museum

Learn more about SuAndi