Mother's Day
A fortune and a spell
Describe Mrs Pearson's problem and Mrs Fitzgerald's plan.
J.B. Priestley's one-act play 'Mother's Day' is set in a London suburb. Mrs Pearson, a gentle, worried housewife, is having her fortune told by her neighbour, Mrs Fitzgerald: a strong, bold woman who smokes and learnt fortune-telling 'out East'.
Mrs Fitzgerald tells Mrs Pearson she must put her foot down. Her husband George and her grown-up children, Doris and Cyril, treat her like a servant. They expect her to wait on them, and they go out every evening to enjoy themselves, never asking her to come.
Mrs Pearson loves her family, and hates unpleasantness. She drops hints, but she cannot bring herself to confront them.
So Mrs Fitzgerald has an idea: she will do it for her, as her. She proposes that they swap bodies.
Holding hands, the two women repeat a strange chant, and they change places. Now Mrs Pearson's body has Mrs Fitzgerald's bold personality, and Mrs Fitzgerald's body holds the gentle Mrs Pearson.
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