Interview with actress and playwright Koël Purie Rinchet
After sold-out runs in Paris and India, the dark comedy Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy! is due to make its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for one week only.
In this comic masterpiece, four mums battle their problems and highlight the pains and travails of motherhood. From a Bible-bashing traditional wife to a pot-smoking Hijabi, the mothers fight bullies, condoms, cucumbers, leaking breasts, devastating diagnosis – and one another.
The show, which will appear at Edinburgh’s Symposium Hall at the end of August, is the brainchild of Mobland actress and playwright Koël Purie Rinchet, who came up with the idea after being caught smoking by her eight-year-old daughter.
We asked Koël about her experience of motherhood, and the importance of female relationships.
Tell us about your career background?
After rejecting it for years I finally embraced the fact that I was born to be an actor and a story teller. I tell stories in whatever medium I can – screen, stage, novels and social media. I started off as a travel show presenter and realised I loved being in front of the camera and the centre of attention. So off I went to train at RADA and have spent the last 25 years acting in India, UK, France and Canada, plus interviewing stars on my chat show and writing fiction.
What inspired you to write your hit show Mummy’s Dead, Long Live Mummy!?
I didn’t set out to write a play, it was meant to be a sort of memoir of motherhood but the minute I put pen to paper, my character started lamenting against the all-pervasive judgement she felt from an invisible entity (God/ society / mothers before her). The laments were loud, hysterical and exaggerated but came from a place of truth and vulnerability. The heightened story leant itself perfectly for theatre.
Fiction allows you to tell the truth more honestly and not self-censor or curate the truth. My daughter caught me smoking and the guilt I felt was so ridiculous but I had spent nine years brainwashing her that “smokers are out their to exterminate the world with their passive fumes.” Triggered by that moment, writing the play was my way of saying – I don’t know what the f I’m doing but I’m systematically screwing up my child on a daily basis.
In what ways is motherhood glorified?
Motherhood is repetitive, relentless and thankless and yet we are expected to make it look beautiful and fulfilling. Even in 2026 a mother struggling and being open about it is considered an anomaly and not the norm. This is far from the ground reality – all mothers know it but still perpetuate the myth that motherhood is no big deal, it is the biggest f’ing deal in the world.
We forget that a child gives birth to a mother too, we focus on the wellbeing of the child and not the mother. She’s as new to it as the child but is not allowed to feel lost or overwhelmed because “it is the most natural, universal thing in the world” even though it tears your insides out physically and emotionally. Lindsay Clancy maybe an extreme case but her exhaustion and unanswered pleas for help echo in all mothers. It’s time we stop ignoring this.
How important are female friendships in navigating motherhood?
Mama friends are your key to survival. Whether it’s a midnight call about the strange red rash on your baby’s back or a non-judgey partner to down a bottle of wine with, female friendships are your lifeline especially through motherhood.
They get it without explanation and honestly which mother has time or energy to explain. Personally for me, I value my women friends above all else – they nourish and replenish me and help me carry on besides I have the most fun with them. All my work from the very first TV series I created back in 1998 centred around women and their relationships. My debut book is story of four unlikely female friends and my play is once again about 4 mothers who form a reluctant sisterhood.
Should we be more honest about how we cope with motherhood?
Absolutely, especially since we live in modern day silos and it takes a village to bring up children. So many mothers are still waiting for their village to show up. Mothers need community and yiu cannot form a community without honesty.
Why is it important to tackle big subjects with humour?
Humour has the power to engage and affect people more deeply than sermons ever will. It’s easier to tell horrible truths by making people laugh.
How have you balanced your own career with motherhood?
There is no such thing as balancing the two. Of course, you can have a career and kids but there will always be an imbalance, something or someone will be let down and willfully ignored. I’ve found this to be true mostly for mothers and not fathers. The only way of preventing the scale from tipping over is by dealing with the most pressing matter in front of you first.
What’s your proudest moment?
That I’m not above starting from scratch over and over again no matter how old I get.
And the biggest hurdle you have overcome?
The limitations of my own belief (coloured by society) of what I’m capable of.
What’s your advice for women coming up behind you in yiour industry?
Do not shrink yourself, instead expand and make room for yourself but do it with grace and joy because no one can compete with someone having fun.
