For most women, approaching the age of 50, and worse, 60, can be a daunting prospect. Women deal with this mid-life crisis in many different ways, but there are probably very few who have seized upon it as a way of opening new doors of opportunity in their lives.

Well, three 40/50 something ladies have done exactly this and written a comedy sketch show poking fun at the trials and tribulations of the ageing process.

The result is “Mutton”, a new, unique and brilliantly funny show that will appeal to women of all ages and the men that have to live with them!

Evening Courier, Halifax 16.5.08

"Mutton Makes Woman Feel Good"

"Three ladies of a certain age struck a chord at this comedy sketch show, playing to a full house.  These three comedy queens have used their insight and wit to touch a nerve with every woman.  This is a show guaranteed to make women feel good about themselves and their age.   Any woman dreading the inevitable should see this show.  It's a celebration of the resilience of womankind.  Forty and 50 something - bring it on."

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Review: Ranjit Khutan: Friday 23rd March 2007 at Arena Theatre

Wolverhampton.

"An original stand up show where you leave with more laughter lines than you came in with.
This is a rip-roaring, roller coaster of a laughter ride with three 40/50-something ladies whose take on reaching that “certain age” will leave you reaching for your Tena - useful for when you’re “laughing too much to care”. Observations about their experiences as women strike a strong chord with the largely female audience, but the jokes about HRT, memory loss and bladder weakness are understandable by both the sexes (Tena the incontinence people sponsor Mutton).

The show opens with a cleverly-pitched direct address to the audience delivered without backing music via text on video (the silence is quickly replaced by the audience’s laughter); this moves into a video montage of short pre-recorded scenes. Having warmed up the audience they appear on stage wearing short skirts, bright coloured tops (no pastel shades here), hair up, make-up on, heels high and packed full of energy (although later on we learn that these could be “hot flushes” which they positively reframe as “power surges”). They’re in the changing rooms, Tammy Girl no less, where their excuse for outfits not looking on them like they do on the models is because the mirrors are distorted.

They go on to wow the audience with their sharp wit in a wine-bar sketch with its hilarious wine/sip/cost-calculation; a party entertainers' sketch which I warn involves some fun audience participation, and a ‘women in power’ sketch where they receive hoots of applause for their “Blair’s Babes” proposal to waive VAT on all feminine hygiene products.

With a total of 12 fresh and original sketches, the team of three use clever innuendo, references and reflections on the trials of growing old to keep the audience laughing from beginning to end. It was only at the end of the show that I realised there was no set – a testament to their skill and talent in filling the space without the need for props".

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2006

"Mutton's first visit took the Epsom Playhouse by storm and left our normally reserved audiences begging for more. Slick, witty and spot one... Mutton is definitely in a top class act. We look forward to welcoming them back at the Playhouse any time" Trevor Mitchell, Epsom Playhouse.

2007

MUTTON

"A very funny evening..... superbly performed material that truly struck a chord with our audience , They loved it” Brian Kirk General Manager, Yvonne-Arnaud Theatre, Guildford

...and this one came from the EDINBURGH METRO Newspaper of AUGUST 26th 2004...

THEATRE REVIEW - MUTTON, EDINBURGH

A shop fitting-room, a female-run Downing Street, a posh restaurant and an aerobics class are among the settings in which they create different hapless and very recognisable characters who grapple with too-tight clothing, 'power surges' (hot flushes), memory lapses, moral dilemmas (whether or not to sleep with Robert Redford) and the arithmetical cost of a glass of wine.

Naturally, beauty parlours and vanity products feature heavily too. A wrinkle cream, one of the ladies notes laconically, has a secondary use as a palliative for her piles.

Aside from the one-liners though, the laughs come from the lovely way in which the trio send up not just the menopause but the female psyche in general. In this, it should appeal to men and women of all ages, regardless of whether they're uprights or cylinders (I'll let them explain).

John MacKenzie

...16.8.2004 Three Weeks in Edinburgh...

The three'age wealthy' women are fine performers, and had all the similarly aged women in the audience laughing uproariously.