“You could have heard a pin drop”. This was how Clare Pilsworth, Family Law Partner, Mediator and Collaborative Lawyer at Tees, described the room during this week’s captivating performance of Daisy Through the Looking Glass, a moving and thought-provoking play, which portrays the worst side of the family court process as it affects a family in crisis.
The production, hosted at Tees’ Bishop’s Stortford headquarters, was part of Family Mediation Week 2026, a series of events designed to raise awareness of family mediation across the country and to highlight the choices available to families experiencing relationship breakdown.
Daisy, written by Stephen Wildblood KC (Designated Family Judge for Bristol 2013-2023), was performed by the Fractured Voices Theatre Group (@fvoices_uos) in front of an invited audience of 40 experts from family justice, psychotherapy, legal and financial services sectors across the region. The play begins with Dave and Maggie meeting 20 years after a bruising court case which ended with Dave being refused contact with Daisy, the couple’s daughter. It then moves backwards in time to the court process and the relationship breakdown, before examining the damage that has been done to all three of them and how it might have been handled differently. After the performance, the actors remain ‘in character’ for a question and answer session with the audience.
Helen Midgley, Tees Family Law Partner and an Accredited Family Mediator, helped to organise the event on behalf of the national working group for Family Mediation Week (FMW). She said “It was an honour to welcome colleagues and contacts from across the region to our offices for the inaugural East Anglian in-person FMW event. As well as raising awareness of Family Mediation, we were happy to raise funds for the Hertfordshire charity Future Living, supporting victims of domestic abuse”.
Tees Family Executive Partner, Sally Powell, said “The priority for Tees is to ensure that clients experiencing relationship breakdown can achieve resolution in the best way possible. Where court action is necessary and appropriate, our specialist team can provide expert support. But we also offer a range of Non-Court Dispute Resolution services including Family Mediation, Collaborative Law and Resolution Together (‘one couple, one lawyer’).
