The title character of Mary Page Marlowe is an unremarkable woman in many respects. She may also represent every woman. Or someone well known by Tracy Letts, the terrific playwright of the Pulitzer Prize winning August: Osage County. Mary Page is played by six different actresses at various ages: Blair Brown, Emma Geer, Mia Sinclair Jenness, Tatiana Maslany, Kellie Overbey and Susan Pourfar. This play explores a life imperfectly lived, filled with regrets about decisions made along the way.
The play opens as Mary Page is informing her two children that she and her husband are divorcing. She is moving to Lexington, Kentucky where she has a new job. The scene is tense, tight and believably traumatic for the three of them. Pivotal life moments are considered throughout this somewhat absorbing piece. The scenes that are excellent are moving studies of this woman and her evolution.
Other scenes are less successful such as the one between young Mary Page and her mother Roberta. Her daughter is rehearsing a song and mom is bitter and just plain mean to her. The tone felt oddly out of place with the rest of the play. Yes, the mother has had a hard life and wants Mary Page to have a thicker skin to survive. But the characterization of Roberta (Grace Gummer) is played harsher than perhaps intended as written.
This relatively short play starts meandering about halfway through and then abruptly concludes in a very unsatisfying finish. A new character is introduced in the final scene that adds nothing to what came before. I’m guessing the that the play ends unremarkably to underscore an unremarkable, unsatisfying life. Mary Page Marlowe is an interesting life study which feels unevenly observed.