MARY JANE – Written by Amy Herzog; Directed by Mark Ragan. Produced by Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company (Presented at the Dairy Center, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder) through May 24. Tickets available at office@thedairy.com.
There are some people born who simply have a capacity for love and compassion beyond the norm. Their inherent kindness, patience, and ability to find joy even in the most daunting of circumstances is epic. Because of the kindness they express, they get it returned threefold. This story about women helping women – particularly one woman, Mary Jane – is heartwarming and hopeful.
Mary Jane has a young son with a cocktail of illnesses, including cerebral palsy. Alex is prone to strokes and difficulty breathing that results in a background ballad of mechanical noises from the machines that help him survive. He is Mary Jane’s world; she has built her existence, her workday, her life around accommodating his good days and his bad. In his short two and a half years, she has built a life with him that includes joy and jokes, even occasional play. She has surrounded herself with a cadre of kind and efficient fellow caregivers for him, but she, more and more, needs to be with him 24/7. She wouldn’t mind losing her job if she could only keep her medical benefits. Instead, her unknowing boss sends her gift baskets.
Her female friends include Ruthie (Tammie Meneghini), as the super in her small apartment building who doubles as a plumber. She is concerned and empathetic without being sentimental. There are things she can do to help, and there are things she can’t change. Sherry (Madelyn J. Smith) is a visiting nurse who has been with them from the beginning and has formed a loving but no-nonsense friendship with both Mary Jane and Alex. Although she keeps a running patter of talk going to fill the silence, her quiet efficiency creates an environment of normalcy and hope. Sherry’s college-age niece comes with her to the apartment to talk to Mary Jane about college. Lucinda Lazo brings a breath of fresh air into the room with her wonder and ability to make her problems seem important for a short amount of time. Mary Jane is generous with sharing the things she has learned by caring for Alex with Brianne (Colleen Lee), a woman who has a child with cerebral palsy and is anxious for firsthand information about best practices.
The second act moves out of the apartment and into Mary Jane’s now familiar environment of the hospital. The four actresses from the first act reappear in totally new and different roles. Colleen becomes Chaya, a Hasidic woman who is also in the hospital with a critically sick child. Tammie swings wide to become a Buddhist nun who started as an Episcopalian and found Buddhism late in life. Her tranquil acceptance of life’s gifts soothes without condescension. Madelyn becomes Alex’s doctor, who has to provide a disheartening update on his condition at the end of a long and tiring shift. Lucinda is the music therapist who got there late but played anyway. Each of the scenes becomes a duet between Mary Jane and another character. Each one a little playlet with the only constant being Mary Jane’s short participation in their life and they in hers and the mostly silent but ever-present Alex.
But the shine in this particularly unorthodox life is given by Candace Orrino as Mary Jane. It is she who brings the ever patient, ever kind, ever optimistic reality. For other people, this might become soul killing, but she never falters. Even as she ponders what her life has become, the unexpected wonder of it surprises her. “I used to smoke weed and go on hikes,” expressing with incredulity at that juxtaposed against her life now. How frivolous! Candace brings an authenticity to this role that, if you saw her on the street, you would be compelled to ask, “How’s Alex today?”
The play is directed allowing the humor to blossom forth in surprising ways while taking the subject of medical anomalies seriously. When your child is sick, nothing else matters and the only worthwhile thing the government, the hospitals, humanity in general can do to help is get them the best care possible. Mark Ragan found both the pleasure and the pain in this script, kept his actresses in their stories with no distractions, and put together a technical team to enhance the whole experience. Tina Anderson’s turntable set that swings from apartment to hospital waiting room is a brilliant way to move from one space to another seamlessly. Both spaces are dressed flawlessly by Katie Hopwood McCleaf. Rowan Livengood designed a sound backdrop that included the beeping and humming of the breathing equipment that keeps Alex in the picture at all times.
Ms. Herzog’s script is given a timeless and thoughtful interpretation. No one who has ever cared for a child could fail to be moved by this production.
A WOW factor of 9!!