James Karas
The
Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
Directed
by Aaron Willis
Nancy
Palk as Mary
Continues
at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts,
****
(out of five)
The Testament of Mary is a one-actor play about the Virgin Mary played by Nancy Palk at the
Young Centre.
What can one say about a woman who is revered and loved by millions of
Christians as the Mother of God, Ever Virgin, All Holy and an approachable
figure who can intercede with God and Jesus? No doubt there is controversy
about her status in some churches but in the Eastern Orthodox Church there is
only devotion and prayer to her.
Tóibín lets Mary relate her story. There are some light touches as in
her views of the apostles as misfits and her comment about how she conceived
Jesus. She knows well what happened she tells us and there is laughter.
But there is pathos when she tells us about seeing her Son on the cross.
She in fact asks how long it takes for someone to die on the cross and is told
it can take hours or days.
Mary is an elderly woman and she remembers certain things but not the
way some of those “misfits” who have become Evangelists want her to remember.
Her Son she is told will save people and grant them eternal life. “Save them
from what?” she asks.
She is pestered by them for information that fits their conception of
the Great Man and the difference He will make to the world.
Nancy Palk as Mary. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann
Palk does a superb job in the role. She modulates her voice, shows anger
and pain but above all she shows humanity. Tóibín avoids the most obvious
pitfall in dealing with Mary and that is sentimentality.
The set by Lorenzo Savoini consists of some chairs and tables and
candles. The door to her room bangs loudly on occasion as the intruding writers
of the Gospels come to pester her for information. I am not sure we needed all
that clanging. Mary reminds us that none of them attended the Crucifixion.
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