Mary Jane
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Cititour.com Review
Seemingly designed as both testament to the human spirt and an examination of the status of women in today’s society, Amy Herzog’s “Mary Jane,” now at New York Theatre Workshop under Anne Kauffman’s surprisingly straightforward direction, is an intelligent yet understated work that nonetheless almost blunts its own power.
In another writer’s hands, the story of a barely-working single mother facing the enormous challenges of dealing with a very sick young child, would elicit sobs, or at least sniffles, from its audience. (In part, that reaction stems, in part, from a rather strange final scene that is more likely to leave us shrugging than crying.) Indeed, throughout the work’s 90 minutes, Herzog’s rather matter-of-fact approach to the tale, most evident in the entirely realistic, rarely over-emotional portrayal of the title character, stems those baser impulses.
Structured as series of one-on-one scenes with a variety of diverse women, the play paints Mary Jane – superbly played here by Carrie Coon (who shot to television fame recently on “Fargo” and “The Leftovers”) -- as both a woman with a strong head on her shoulders and a “gift” for denial in dealing with the illness facing her (never-seen) son Alex, who seems “lucky” to have even survived for two years.
In the first half of the play, set in Mary Jane’s apartment (the deceptively simple set is by the great Laura Jellinek), she chats with her straightforward apartment superintendent (Brenda Wehle), a take-charge home nurse (a wonderful Liza Colon-Zayas) and her college-aged niece (a fine Danaya Esperanza), and another mom with an ill child with whom Mary Jane has kindly chosen to share her hard-earned wisdom Susan Pourfar). These conversations, smartly written and having the keen sense of verisimilitude, still don’t quite add up to very much.
When Alex is rushed to the hospital, the story gains some urgency. Mary Jane begins to transform, and we finally see the pain and anger she has struggled so hard to control. Indeed, one the play’s signature moments comes when Mary Jane is consulting with one of the hospital’s doctors (Colon-Zayas) who explains to her that the risk of radiation caused by Alex’s now daily x-rays should not be her focus. “We’re talking 20 or 30 years, and that’s a long time,” she tells Mary Jane, whom we see is finally forced to confront the gravity of her situation.
Shortly after, when meeting the mother of another ill child, an Orthodox Jewish woman named Chaya (brilliantly embodied by Pourfar), Mary Jane, whose husband has left her, begins to question whether faith might have been a helpful tool in her arsenal. That discussion soon continues between Mary Jane and an elderly Buddhist nun (well-inhabited by Wehle) who works as a hospital chaplain. There are no easy answers to be had, no deep revelations.
In the end, Herzog leaves us with a delicate understanding that life, whether we are the mother of a sick child, a struggling college student or an overworked employee, is what we choose to make of it.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.nytw.org/show/mary-jane
Cast
Carrie Coon, Liza Colón-Zayas, Danaya Esperanza, Susan Pourfar, Brenda Wehle
Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/6/2017
Closing 10/29/2017
Box Office
212-460-5475
Theatre Info
New York Theatre Workshop
79 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
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