Mary Page Marlowe is an accountant from Ohio. She's led an ordinary life, making the difficult decisions we all face as we try to figure out who we really are and what we really want. As Tracy Letts brings us moments-both pivotal and mundane-from Mary's life, a portrait of a surprisingly complicated woman emerges. Intimate and moving, Mary Page Marlowe shows us how circumstance, impulse and time can combine to make us mysteries...even to ourselves.
These snapshots are not always flattering or happy, and much is left unsaid and unexplored. Perhaps she went to prison for drink-driving and it’s hinted that she had an abortion in college. Letts presents pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that make up Mary’s life, not the whole picture. This disjointed approach can be challenging as Letts offers up a whisper of truth, then sometimes snatches it away. But many will recognise how memories are often fragmented and that we rarely know the full story of someone’s life.
The even more famous Susan Sarandon – making her UK stage debut – has less to get stuck into. Playing Mary Page in her eldest years, there is no fault in her acting and at 79 she’s in great form. The trouble is that in all three of her scenes, her Mary Page is essentially content and has largely surmounted the volcanic traumas of her earlier life. Sure, it’s part of the point that Mary Page is different from scene to scene. And there is some subtly devastating stuff quietly revealed in these sections. But Sarandon is tonally adrift from a play that’s mostly about how difficult this woman’s life was - she almost feels like she’s in her own, lower-stakes drama.
| 2016 | Chicago |
Steppenwolf Original Production Chicago |
| 2018 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theater New York Premiere Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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