In some ways, the function of Mary Jane, the only mom on the heart of Amy Herzog’s compassionate play Mary Jane, was made for Rachel McAdams.
The actress’ most notable characters embrace an acid-tongued high-school scholar (Imply Women), a lovesick Southern belle (The Pocket book) and a tireless investigative reporter (Highlight), however final 12 months she delivered a quietly transferring efficiency in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which marked a brand new flip in her understated model.
In Kelly Fremon Craig’s adaptation of Judy Blume’s novel, McAdams breathed new life into Margaret’s mom Barbara, a girl estranged from her conservative household after marrying a Jewish man (Benny Safdie). The actress’ greatest scenes are the hushed ones, moments through which her character, enveloped by the quiet of an empty home, releases the stress in her shoulders and indulges in her anxieties and uncertainties. Not solely should Barbara assist Margaret navigate the dramas of adolescence, however she should additionally alter to the realities of suburban motherhood and negotiate her personal sort of non secular existentialism.
Mary Jane, too, is working by way of a disaster of religion, though her emotional troubles are buried beneath layers of congeniality and optimism. Her two-year-old son Alex — whose presence is at all times felt, however by no means seen — requires around-the-clock take care of his persistent sicknesses. Their house, impressively designed by Lael Jellinek, bustles with exercise. We meet Mary Jane in the midst of a dialog together with her superintendent, Ruthie (a superb Brenda Wehle). Because the older girl assaults a clogged sink with a plunger, Mary Jane rambles. Their chatter is heat, fast and witty — the sort of actual, lived-in speak one may discover in a play like Annie Baker’s Infinite Life. Later, we’ll see the mom rummaging by way of the kitchen to search out IV fluid luggage and residential nurses tiptoe into the house for his or her night time shift. The area vibrates; the chaos is coordinated.
Herzog, who’s having fun with a Broadway second with the premiere of her adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the Folks, based mostly Mary Jane on a few of her personal experiences as a mum or dad: Her daughter was born with a uncommon muscular dysfunction and died final 12 months on the age of 11. Beneath the push of our bodies in Mary Jane, which was directed by Anne Kauffman, there may be the stillness of contemplation. The center of this play is in Mary Jane’s dialog together with her group: moms in an identical state of affairs (each performed by Susan Pourfar); her nurse and her physician (April Matthis); a younger girl and a hospital music trainer (Lily Santiago); her superintendent and a chaplain (Wehle). That these characters, whom she encounters at residence and later within the hospital, are performed by the identical actors lends these already placing performances a strong emotional valence.
It’s as if these actors are additionally buoying McAdams, who makes her Broadway debut right here. She takes cues from these girls, modulating the pitch of her efficiency to maintain in tune, and solely often falls into the dramatic traps of Hollywood stars taking the stage. Total, it’s a looking out and poignant flip, discovering and providing us totally different variations of Mary Jane. Within the presence of Brianne, a mom embarking on an identical journey, or Sherry, her buddy and Alex’s nurse, Mary Jane is a fast-talking properly of data on learn how to navigate totally different social providers with a chronically sick baby. However scenes later, when Brianne turns into Chaya, a Hasidic mom for whom the hospital has turn out to be a second residence, or Sherry is Dr. Toros, Alex’s attending surgeon, we will see the burden of Mary Jane’s obligations. It’s within the hungry look she provides Chaya as the girl tells her personal story, or the fad effervescent to the floor as Dr. Toros delivers troubling information.
Mary Jane is as a lot about group as it’s concerning the rigidity of a bifurcated existence — the painful severance one feels in a society that renders the chronically sick and people caring for them invisible. Kauffman and Jellinek use the set, crammed with revelatory moments of motion, to replicate the safety of an house constructing in Queens versus the sterility of a hospital. Ben Stanton’s lighting attunes audiences to the pull of optimism in opposition to the seduction of nihilism. And within the conversations we discover Mary Jane, within the face of despair and as a sort of self-protection, at all times selecting hope.
Venue: Samuel J. Friedman, New York
Forged: Rachel McAdams, April Matthis, Susan Pourfar, Lily Santiago, Brenda Wehle
Director: Anna Kauffman
Playwright: Amy Herzog
Scenic designer: Lael Jellinek
Costume designer: Brenda Abbandandolo
Lighting designer: Ben Stanton
Sound designer: Leah Gelpe
Introduced by Lynne Meadow, Chris Jennings