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.
But it is the acting, particularly of the Marys, that carries the day. Riseborough is an actor who always seems to be missing a skin; she brings all that raw intensity and eyes full of emotion to the scenes where Mary battles with divorce and despair; McEwen captures both the underlying instability and the bold determination to reject male expectations that drives Mary to both therapy and casual, pointless affairs. In their single scenes, both Worthington-Cox and Weir seize their moment with coruscating honesty and openness. Apart from Quarshie, all the men are ciphers, but Eden Epstein is compelling as Mary’s mother Roberta.
Susan Sarandon, in her UK stage debut, plays the elder Mary at ages 59, 63 and 69. Her performance is brilliantly still and magnetic – she conveys the physical weariness of age but also an internal steadiness. It is an excellent portrayal of a woman who has lived through so much, carrying the weight of her experiences in the set of her shoulders.
| 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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