Amy Herzog provides us with a shattering and heartfelt portrayal of motherhood in Manhattan Theater Club’s revival of her 2017 play Mary Jane, now at the Samuel J. Friedman. Mary Jane, played Rachel McAdams in an impressive Broadway debut, faces a seemingly insurmountable challenge. She has been left by her spouse, but she does not dwell on her misfortune. Her only child Alex suffers from a laundry list of illnesses, rendering him unable to talk, breath or sit up on his own at age two. Without melodrama or histrionics, Herzog offers an almost documentary view of Mary Jane’s struggles with live-in nurses, plumbing issues, the grind of getting through the day, and her son’s complex medical needs.
The production closely resembles Anne Kauffman’s original one from the New York Theater Workshop, except Lael Jellinek’s set is now more elaborate with a stunning effect once Alex’s condition takes a turn for the worse (No spoilers). Also, Herzog has put in a minor edit, acknowledging the post-COVID pandemic era and the pressure on Mary Jane to return to her office job. Kauffman’s staging is almost invisible in its simplicity and heartbreaking in its attention to the small details such as the matter-of-fact casualness that the characters exhibit when dealing with Alex’s vital signs and maintaining the various machines which keep him alive.
The same is truly for the five-woman company. McAdams carefully calibrates Mary Jane’s sunny optimism not to be too saccharine and allows the smallest break in her composure to have maximum impact late in the play. The four other actresses double up as friends, doctors, nurses and supporters, endowing each with a separate and strong personality as well as reams of subtext. Brenda Wehle is strikingly sympathetic as a friendly building superintendent and a compassionate Buddhist nun. Susan Pourfar garners guffaws and tears as two very different mothers with situations similar to Mary Jane.
April Matthis is steely but soft-hearted as a no-nonsense nurse and doctor. Lily Santiago brings dimension to a young friend and a kind music therapist.
Mary Jane does not have “action” or “plot” in the conventional sense and there is no climactic resolution. It’s what we used to call a “slice-of-life” dramas and the servings are enriching and insightful into motherhood in particular and the human condition in general.
