Review: MARY JANE at The Seattle Rep

Dear Readers, we’ve all had to, or will have to, deal with an ailing loved one.  But with luck that span where we devote extra time and care or even time in the hospital will be temporary and brief.  A broken bone or a minor surgery, if the gods are kind.  But what happens when that medical malady becomes your life?  That’s where Amy Herzog’s slice-of-life play, “Mary Jane” currently at the Seattle Rep, lives.  And while the show certainly had some wonderful performances and poignant moments, I left feeling a bit unsatisfied. 

In the piece we center on the titular Mary Jane (Brenda Joyner), a single mother who cares for her two-year-old son, Alex.  But beyond a typical mother caring for her child, Alex was born 15 weeks premature and now suffers from a host of physical and mental disabilities, making the care for him a herculean task.  Mary Jane is not alone as she has a rotating band of nurses who come to help, most notably Sherry (Shaunyce Omar), allowing Mary Jane to attempt to keep her job as an administrative assistant.  But it’s not easy as Alex’s monitors continue to beep and alarms go off, sometimes leading to extensive stays in the hospital.  But through it all Mary Jane keeps a positive, sunny attitude. 

With direction from Allison Narver, the pace never lags even when a massive scene change happens thanks to a deceptively simple set from Julia Hayes Welch.  And the cast of five superb women, most of whom take on dual roles, deliver outstanding performances.  Omar brings in a force of nature as the no nonsense caregiver one minute and then a doting doctor the next.  Amy Thone goes from the super of Mary Jane’s building to the stunningly introspective Buddhist priest at the hospital.  Anteia DeLaney manages a heart wrenching moment as Sherry’s niece, Amelia, as she’s thrust into a harrowing emergency moment when Alex takes a turn for the worse, but also a sweet and touching moment as the hospital’s music therapist.  And Andi Alhadeff brought in my favorite character of a fellow suffering mother Chaya even after appearing as another mother just starting her journey with a sick child. 

But it’s Joyner who takes on the lion’s share of the piece as Alex’s doting mother.  She’s solid and consistent throughout with that hopeful optimism until it all becomes too much later in the play, where Joyner shows the walls begin to crack in this woman’s world only to see her patch them all back together on a dime.

As I said the show is a slice-of-life kind of play and while being powerful and still offering some lighter moments, it suffers from this kind of play’s downfall (at least for me) as the ending, or rather lack of an ending or resolution, tends to leave me wanting more.  But beyond that it certainly delivers many different facets of a harsh world many of us thankfully know nothing about.  And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give “Mary Jane” at the Seattle Rep a powerful yet unsettled MEH+.  I’ve personally dealt with some assemblance of medical and hospital moments the past few months, hence my lack of reporting, but thankfully nothing like this and also thankfully, temporary.