Charlotte Keatley’s gentle, nostalgic and also vaguely feminist drama My Mother Said I Never Should was the latest production by the ever-reliable Oxford Theatre Guild.

Set in Manchester and London, it tells the story of four generations of women from the same family. The play explores the characters’ connections in terms of family and gender, and examines how society shapes and changes people over time. There is a non-linear, playful narrative structure in operation which encourages you to draw thematic parallels, rather than forming the cohesive story of the characters in your mind.

It was a low-key piece for the Guild; it’s not a play of particular wit, insight or dramatic tension. Instead, it provided a meandering, sometimes languid (the two-and-a-half hours of its running time did seem somewhat longer at points) account of the women’s changing lives and roles in society, peppered with lightly humorous touches and drenched in the kind of nostalgia that Alan Bennett fans would recognise. That said, it’s not a bad play by any means, and the programme told us it frequently appeared on A-level syllabuses.

It worked as well as it did because the four-strong cast was terrific. It’s hard to pick between Cathy Oakes, Emma Blake, Laura Bromley and Tania Higgins; their performances were shot through with emotional candour, which lifted them above any ‘three ages of women’ stereotypes the writing occasionally falls foul of.

The production was solid, and sympathetic to the play’s emotional core. There was too much repetition of the same nursery rhymes, music and chants played over the speakers during the sometimes quite lengthy scene changes. But it was well directed, (Aldyth Thompson) and moved at a fluid pace.

Although an unusual choice for the company, My Mother Said I Never Should was a refreshingly different play which was worth seeing for fans of Alan Bennett. Well-performed and decently directed, it is, in the best possible sense, a worthy night out.