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Toibin’s writing at times feels poetic but even when at its most literary, is still urgent. As an audience it is impossible not to feel her deep torment and fight for survival.įiona Shaw in "The Testament of Mary." (photo: Paul Kolnik)
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She speaks not to advance the narrative of Christianity but to deeply reveal herself and come to terms with traumatic experience. All manage to illuminate the mother not the messiah.
THE TESTAMENT OF MARY BROADWAY PLUS
It is a journey marked by incidents in the life of her son, some based on actual Biblical stories - such as when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the sick or turned water into wine, plus the crucifixion itself - and others completely imagined by the author. Sound a little out there? It is, but this juxtaposition of the modern and the age-old is gripping.įlexing her masterful storytelling muscles and using her real ones (there is a good deal of physical work involved to establish and advance the story), Shaw delivers a performance that is so visceral, skillful and raw that the 85 minutes performed without an intermission sprint by in a flash. Her only counterpart on stage is a vulture whose purpose is wholly metaphorical.
THE TESTAMENT OF MARY BROADWAY FULL
And that she does in what looks like it could be a large, downtown warehouse apartment full of found art. Testament’s Mary may start ensconced in a glass case surrounded by lit candles (the audience is allowed on stage to gaze at Shaw, whose mumblings can be seen but not heard) but once the curtain drops and rises again, Mother Mary is free to have a cigarette, drink booze straight from the bottle, thrash about and do whatever else is necessary to cope with her grief. In other words, this is not your Father’s Virgin. Deborah Warner’s emboldened direction pushes artistic boundaries and tests where modern audiences are willing to go in their understanding of and compassion for the religious icon. Adapted from what was originally a short play in Dublin and then a critically acclaimed novella, the work in its most current form at the Walter Kerr Theater is a bold imagining of a period following Jesus’ crucifixion - told entirely from the viewpoint of the Virgin Mary. Theater is at its finest during The Testament of Mary, a new play by Colm Toibin, starring the robust and regal Irish actress, Fiona Shaw. Fiona Shaw in "The Testament of Mary." (photo: Paul Konik)