![]() ![]() Mary was the single most popular female name among Palestinian Jews of the time, borne by about one in four women. Overview Historical frequency of the name Mary 7 Mary, mother of James and Joseph/Joses.1.3 Identification of the New Testament Marys.1.2 New Testament frequency of the name Mary.1.1 Historical frequency of the name Mary. ![]() For the deeply religious, this may be blasphemy, but I think most audiences will simply relate to her humanity. In the end, we see this Mary, like any mother who outsurvived her child, as a woman who simply wishes she could reverse time and change the outcome. Moreover, it ultimately detracts – and distracts – from the true theatricality that Shaw provides even when she’s sitting still. It’s the kind of “theatricality” that you might expect to see in a college production. In addition to the constant motion, there’s even a nude bathtub scene, a live vulture, plus a weird pre-show bit in which the audience is invited onstage to gawk at Shaw. Oddly enough, though, Warner – Shaw’s longtime collaborator – somehow doesn’t trust that her star or the script will keep us fully engaged. Even a familiar Biblical tale like the death and resurrection of Lazarus is rendered with poignancy by Shaw. Shaw, best known to many for her work in the “Harry Potter” films, is a natural-born raconteur, and her impassioned, vocally varied delivery of Toibin’s 90-minute script keeps us mostly riveted. (That’s perhaps the best explanation for why director Deborah Warner keeps Shaw constantly moving around Tom Pye’s overstuffed set!) Given the chance to tell us her side of the story, Mary spits it out, from her early misgivings about her son’s behavior with his followers – whom she calls “misfits” - to her agonizing recollection of her actions on the day of his untimely death. This Mary is still alive (the Playbill tells us the setting is now) and confined to a rather large house by her unseen guardians, who apparently make her very nervous even when they’re not around. And it turns out their relationship was a lot more complicated than we’ve previously led to believe. But in Colm Toibin’s provocative and often searing monologue The Testament of Mary, now being brought to extraordinary life by the gifted actress Fiona Shaw at the Walter Kerr Theatre, Mary has quite a few things to tell us about her relationship with her son (whom she never mentions by name). ![]() ![]() Mothers are consistently celebrated for their deep, abiding love towards their children - and perhaps no more so than the Virgin Mary. ![]()
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