Show I'm Seeing this Summer...Mary Page Marlow

[edjames]

Now at Second Stage with a great cast of ladies, all playing the title character at different stages of her life. Blair Brown, Grace Gummer, Tatianna Maslany and others perform a series of vignette scenes depicting a woman whose life can only be summed up with the phrase "bad decisions." Written by Tracey Letts, I felt the show needed work and I think the audiences lack of overwhelming applause and lack of a standing-o proved my point. Shame.

 

For ‘Mary Page Marlowe,’ Six Actresses Share One Role

The many faces of “Mary Page Marlowe,” clockwise from top left: Mia Sinclair Jenness, Kellie Overbey, Emma Geer, Susan Pourfar, Tatiana Maslany and Blair Brown.

 

In “Mary Page Marlowe,” a play by Tracy Letts that tracks seven decades in an Ohio woman’s life, the title character is many things: a baby, a girl, a wife, a lover, a mother, a divorcée, a retiree.

 

She’s also many people. In the Second Stage Theater production, which is now in previews and opens July 12, Mary Page is played by six actresses. Well, six actresses and one creepily lifelike baby doll.

 

On a recent weekday evening, rehearsal wrapped and the cast rushed into the green room to celebrate a couple of birthdays. Then the various Mary Pages shuffled back into the upstairs rehearsal space, balancing plates of cake, glasses of water and, in the case of Tatiana Maslany, who plays Mary Page at 27 and 36, half an avocado. “I missed lunch,” she said.

 

Ms. Maslany, who played at least 11 roles on the TV clone drama “Orphan Black,” and is finding it a pleasant change to share just one, was joined by Mia Sinclair Jenness, who plays Mary Page at 12; Emma Geer, who plays her at 19; Susan Pourfar, who plays her at 40 and 44; Kellie Overbey, the sole blond Mary, who plays her at 50; Blair Brown, who plays her at 59, 63 and 69; and the director, Lila Neugebauer. The creepy baby stayed in its crib. (There are other actors, too. And other characters. But these are the only Mary Pages.)

 

Barring occasional interruptions — Ms. Overbey briefly slipped out to manage a migraine, Ms. Pourfar excused herself to collect her actual baby, “not a doll,” she clarified — the women spoke about identity, change and the challenge of convincing an audience that women with different faces and voices and ways of moving through the world are really all the same. Wigs help. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Who Is Mary Page Marlowe?

MIA SINCLAIR JENNESS I think she’s resilient. Even as a 12-year-old, she goes through her fair share of heartbreaks and bad times, but that doesn’t necessarily make her a sad person.

 

EMMA GEER I’m playing her at 19. She’s strong, she’s powerful. She’s a dreamer and she has a very big heart.

 

TATIANA MASLANY The big question of identity is a massive part of Mary Page in the two scenes in which we see me. It’s what happens at 30, what I certainly experienced — a question of who am I and what is my life?

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/theater/for-mary-page-marlowe-six-actresses-share-one-role.html