Menopause offers Flo new chance to go centre stage

It’s unlikely that singer, actress and mother Flo McSweeney will ever get a swelled head – at least not when her eight- year old daughter Mia is about.

“I sing in the car bringing her to school and when we get near her school Mia says ‘stop mum!’. I tell her that people used to pay to hear me sing,” laughs Flo.

People certainly did. Flo was one of the country’s best-known performers during the 1980s and early 1990s, when she sang with groups such as Les Enfants, Toys with Rhythm, and Moving Hearts and presented RTÉ’s pop programme, Megamix. More recently, she anchored the travel programme No Frontiers and still works as a voiceover artist for radio and TV ads, although it’d be fair to say her career has taken a back seat since the birth of her children Luke (13) and Mia.

However, in recent times Flo has moved centre stage again and will be appearing in Menopause The Musical at the city’s Town Hall Theatre from March 1-6, along with fellow performers Adele King (Twink), Linda Martin and the UK’s Ellen O’Grady

“I’m getting a lot of slagging from my friends,” she laughs. Last year Flo did another show, Mum’s the Word with the same production company, which was a big commercial hit, so when she was approached about taking in Menopause the Musical she was delighted.

One stipulation of being in Mum’s the Word was that you had to have children, she says, but “thankfully that’s not the case this time out”.“I keep saying I’m not menopausal yet, but I will be by the end of the run!”

Menopause The Musical is a comedy with a whole of lot music and four defined characters, she explains. Linda Martin plays a soap opera actress, Adèle King is a housewife, Ellen O’Grady is a business woman and Flo’s character is described as ‘an earth mother’, but “she’s really more a hippy chick – a bit mad and a bit flaky”.

The script consists of parodies of songs from the 1960s and 70s and Adele in particular has several sketches that are “very rude but very funny”. Essentially, “it’s four very strong singers in a very funny show”, Flo says.

The opportunity for a bit of humour is something people are happy to avail of right now.

“Were living in such a depressed time that a show like Menopause works because it’s a feel-good night.”

The idea of four women on an Irish stage laughing at the menopause, at hot flushes and hormonal mood swings, hasn’t raised a single eyebrow of disapproval. And that’s strange because it isn’t so very long ago that sex was a taboo subject in Ireland.

Flo remembers that when she was growing up, it was forbidden to advertise sanitary towels or tampons on the TV. So, it’s massively liberating to tour a show like this.

“Sometimes you see quite elderly women [in the audience] and initially they are shocked and then you see them laughing.”Flo is now 48 and while she has put on some weight since her rock-chick days, she’s in good shape “everything is working as it was 20 years ago”, she laughs.

Most importantly, she is happy to be back on stage, although she isn’t seeking the limelight.

“For me it’s about work and not about fame. Adele and Linda would merit most of the attention [in this show]. I just like the idea of working.”

She is not driven by a financial need, but feels “it’s good for you to be doing what you love” adding that a little bit of her did die when she stopped performing.

“Part of me feels a little bit guilty, like when my daughter was on the phone 15 minutes ago saying ‘I miss you’ – I wonder if I’m being very self indulgent. But it’s only a six-week tour and I’m home every Saturday night.”

Home is in Knocklyon in South Dublin, and Flo’s husband is the comedian Barry Murphy, who is currently hosting the comedy show That’s All We’ve Got Time For on RTÉ 1 television, and who forms one third of the hugely successful Après Match comedy group.

For more, read page 31 of this week's Connacht Tribune.