A BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominee is starring in a brand new play premiering in Dorset tonight and tomorrow.

She Called Me Mother starring Cathy Tyson invites the audience into the life of Evangeline Gardner – a homeless, 70-year-old Afro-Caribbean woman living on the streets where she is reunited with her estranged daughter Shirley.

It is written in poetic Trinidadian vernacular rarely heard on our stages and is the second production from Black Theatre Live, a pioneering consortium of eight regional theatres, including Lighthouse, committed to touring inventive Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic theatre to venues across the country.

Cathy Tyson has more than three decades of experience in the industry having started her career at the Liverpool Everyman at the age of 17, before joining the RSC in 1984 and starring in director Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa alongside Bob Hoskins in 1986.

As well as appearing on television in Grange Hill and Emmerdale, her recent credits include Bright Phoenix (Liverpool Everyman), Stand (Oxford Playhouse) and Monkey Bars (Traverse and touring).

Performances begin at 8pm on both evenings. Contact Lighthouse for tickets.