"The Testament Of Mary" To Close Sunday- Page 2

[AnthVoice2010]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:04pm

[John Adams]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:04pm

>> "i dont understand how if its a one woman play, and the play gets nominated, how does the one woman in the play NOT get nominated?"

All other aspects (aside from the acting) were viewed as "worthy". The same could have happened for I'll Eat You Last.

Many folks saw Midler's performance as a re-application of her concert persona. IF the Tony committee had found more value in the script, staging, lighting, etc..., I'll Eat You Last could have been in the same boat.

Perhaps the Tony committee felt that Shaw's performance was not as strongly "standout" as the other nominated actresses'.

Obviously, I don't know, but... Is there a chance that she was not submitted for contention (either by her own choice, or someone else's)?

Updated On: 4/30/13 at 02:04 PM

[theaterfan862]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:10pm

OMG I really hope I get to see it before it closes!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:17pm

I felt that there's a sensitive and thought provoking play here that gets lost in a bizarre production. I've wondered how a more gentle actress (like Rosemary Harris) would fare in the role. Shaw's Mary is too much of a feminist and "butch"

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:24pm

Feminist and butch? Well, The Bible does say Mary was never touched by a man...

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:25pm

JohnAdams. you make a good point, but aside from the vulture, i dont think there was any other staging, set designs... sound and light were basic i understand. i think they got scared from the protests.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 2:27pm

[Dollypop]

Posted: 4/30/13 at 4:52pm

There's the staging where Mary is constantly moving items from one side of the stage to the other for no reason. The nude scene is gratuitous and the smoking of cigarettes didn't seem to have any purpose.

Then there's the vulture.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:01pm

I was suppose to go see this tomorrow night through a ticketing site that shall not be named but they emailed me and said the show was canceled. Checking telecharge though it still looks like there is a show and their official website says nothing about it either. Anyone have any idea?

Updated On: 5/1/13 at 10:01 PM

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:08pm

Shame. Yeah, I was comped like everyone else in the world, but I really liked it.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:19pm

Ms. Shaw's acting tics were growing so huge they demanded their own dressing room.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:21pm

Seeing it on Saturday. Glad I'll be able to see it before it closes. What a bizarre and sad turn of events for this show.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 5/1/13 at 10:47pm

I meant to put I was seeing it tomorrow until one of the papering sites sent me an email saying it was canceled.

[hak5]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 10:00am

so does the fact it's closing earlier than expected nullify the nomination?

[oasisjeff]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 10:12am

Nope, still nominated.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 5/2/13 at 10:45am

so does the fact it's closing earlier than expected nullify the nomination?

Haha. No. You do realize that some of those shows aren't even open right now, correct?

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 7:06pm

I saw it this afternoon, what a waste of time. Only the Anarchist was more torture then this in the last few years.

I don't have one good thing to say about this show. The other place should have definitely been nominated over this for best play

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 9:45pm

I saw it today as well and while it is a busy production, I thought that the script was thought-provoking. I think that's what the nomination is for more than for the production (although there are some famous producers involved). I thought it was an interesting sound design as well. Fiona is a fierce Mary, which I found to be a valid interpretation and performance of it. I wonder, as someone suggested, what a gentler approach to the role would have been like.

[wonkit]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 10:08pm

I am fascinated by the thought that a gentler interpretation would work. This is a woman on the point of death who saw her only son tortured and murdered. And his memory co-opted by the men around him for their own purposes after his death. She is guilty and frightened and ashamed of her actions (no spoilers) and she is trying to make sense of it all by saying what she feels must be said before she dies. I don't think that a gentle approach to her complex feelings as a mother would be riveting theater for 90 minutes. There has to be a tremendous energy and anger and sense of loss to propel the story and I thought Fiona Shaw was amazing and effective. This is not a religious treatise - it is the embodiment of human, maternal grief and regret. The physical production was bewildering at times but the performance itself was not.

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 10:24pm

I don't mean that it should be gentle at all times. It seems as though Mary has been reticent all this time, not knowing what to do or say, and this is the first time she's saying these truths out loud. In the action of the story, she's not allowed to think or speak for herself. Yes there should be a journey to say the truth out loud, but what if she started in a less aggressive place? Like she's embarrassed and scared to say what she's saying? There is a definite build in the script and that should definitely be observed. I don't know, I think it might be interesting. Again, not saying that what Fiona is doing betrays the text, I think she's giving a tremendous performance.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/4/13 at 10:34pm

I feel that a gentle approach would work if the actress playing Mary was compelling. There are many ways to embody grief. Shaw picks the most obvious way. Think of Cherry Jones in the role.

[wonkit]

Posted: 5/5/13 at 3:58pm

The book is terribly dark, but I thought much of the first half of the performance was, in fact, self-effacing and even self-mocking. Her attitude towards the disciples as "misfits" and the change in her son's demeanor when in the presence of the men was, to me, just like a mother complaining about her teenager hanging around with the wrong crowd. The last 20 minutes or so are so very intense that it is possible to forget that she was not a harsh person until she spoke with Marcus and went to Jerusalem. I can well imagine Cherry Jones (in anything!) but I thought Fiona was riveting - possibly one of the most difficult one-person roles I can envision.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 9:50am

In this instance I think Fiona Shaw got lost into herself and didn't do justice to the role as written. In more blatant terms: she was showing off too much.

[NoName3]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 12:34pm

"Feminist and butch? Well, The Bible does say Mary was never touched by a man..."

Um, no. The Bible says the opposite:

"Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" Matthew 13:55-56

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/6/13 at 1:01pm

Yeah I think I remember the play mentioning Jesus as an only child. That's not totally biblical.