There are not that many male authors who can write (flawed and complex) women protagonists both convincingly and empathetically. Tolstoy could with his creation of Anna Karenina, as did Flaubert with Madame Bovary. I think Tracy Letts may also qualify for this rare club, as evidenced by Mary Page Marlowe. His portrait of an Ohio-born, Midwest-stuck woman’s life premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre in 2016, went to Broadway two years later, and has now found its way to London for its UK premiere nearly a decade later as part of Matthew Warchus’ final season as Artistic Director at the Old Vic, in which he is staging all productions in the round.
Perhaps it’s because he is also an actor and is therefore used to walking in the shoes of others, but Letts has the rare gift of creating distinct and engaging character portraits that are neither judgemental nor sentimental. The titular character, played across 11 scenes by five actors and a doll at different ages ranging from infancy to 69, does little that is either heroic or evil. She longs to see Paris rather than Dayton or Lexington, Kentucky, but finds herself, somewhat like Madame Bovary, stuck in the provinces. Mary Page is not only literally confined to the bluegrass state for reasons we discover later, but also by her persona as a woman. She is trapped with the internalised guilt, shame and inadequacy derived from a mix of multi-generational dysfunction, Catholicism and alcohol use. This play is by no means tepid, but it is gentler and more affectionate than Letts’ other major works: Killer Joe or August in Osage County.
Although it does have a sort of intimacy and voyeurism that fulfils Warchus’ reasoning for staging it in the round, I am not sure that this production required such a configuration. Despite costing two months’ worth of construction, 50 tonnes of steelwork and equipment delivered by 14 articulated lorries and a crew of 50 to assemble it, my sightlines in the centre of the stalls (Row N, Seat 14) were absolutely terrible! I would have far preferred the production to do its thing in the Old Vic’s conventional proscenium set-up – as many an American modern domestic drama masterpiece has before – given I had to peer around the temporary bannisters at eye level to glimpse about a quarter of the action. Nonetheless, the dominant actor of the play, Andrea Risborough, (who plays Mary at ages 40, 44 and 50) is so skilled and compelling in voice as well as posture that the literal neck ache felt a small price to pay. And Susan Sarandon (Mary at 59, 63 and 69) is a star for a reason too. Rosy McEwen (Mary at 27 and 36) and Alisha Weir (Mary at 12) show us other ages of Mary with nuance and command. Eleanor Worthington-Cox portrays Mary at 19 with quality but her scene, early in the play, in which she and her two friends, Lorna (Daniella Arthur-Kennedy) and Connie (Kingsley Morton) have a go reading tarot cards felt more like clunky exposition to introduce themes of destiny and compromise and lacked the dramatic heft of each of Risborough’s turns or the actual foreboding meted out powerfully by Eden Epstein as Mary’s mother, Roberta. Perhaps its placement in the line-up made it more challenging and Kingsley Morton, as Mary’s wise-cracking friend — who was given the scene’s best lines — enlivened it, but instead of being drawn in, I started to feel exiled and disinterested by the teenaged girls’ chatter; even though the point about “the cards already being dealt” is a crucial one to the themes of the play and sets up an ultimate acceptance of responsibility by its central character. However, this bump in the road wasn’t enough to derail me, and I was drawn back into the subtle mysteries foreshadowed and fulfilled by the second half of the play.
The various men in Mary’s life – father, lover, husbands and son – all gave excellent performances and Noah Weatherby as her dad, with the small moment of praising the saloon over the cabaret as a lullaby, beautifully fulfilled this most theatrical of moments.
Who we are and who we become is not a linear process. Mary Page Marlowe’s time-jumping episodes make sense of the juxtapositions – indeed contradictions – that a life, with or without regrets, and its memories and crossroads, will have and provide an outstanding vehicle for some truly leading ladies of the theatre.
Review by Mary Beer
‘I’m not the person I am,’ Mary Page Marlowe says. This is a play which considers the layers of who we are, who we appear to be, and who we once were. Mary Page Marlowe unfolds in fragments, with five actors embodying Mary at different ages across 11 non-chronological scenes. Its structure mimics the fragmented nature of memory and the complexity of a person’s sense of self, inviting the audience to piece together Mary’s life as we do our own — out of order, coloured by emotion and full of contradictions and gaps.
CAST
Andrea Riseborough – Mary Page Marlowe (40, 44 and 50)
Susan Sarandon – Mary Page Marlowe (59, 63 and 69)
Daniella Arthur-Kennedy – Lorna
Lucy Bromilow – Understudy Mary Page Marlowe (27 and 36)/Roberta Marlowe
Eden Epstein – Roberta Marlowe
Kevin N Golding – Understudy Andy/Ray
Maureen Hibbert – Understudy Nurse/Shrink
Clare Hughes – Wendy Gilbert
Matthew Jeans – Understudy Ben/Dan/Ed
Jess Kambitsis – Understudy Mary Page Marlowe (12)/Mary Page Marlowe (19)/Connie/Lorna/Wendy
Gilbert Kyem Jnr – Ben
Melanie La Barrie – Nurse
Rosy McEwen – Mary Page Marlowe (27 and 36)
Kingsley Morton – Connie
Hugh Quarshie – Andy
Roisin Rae – Understudy Mary Page Marlowe (40, 44 and 50)
Ronan Raftery – Dan
Paul Thornley – Ray
Lauren Ward – Shrink
Noah Weatherby – Ed Marlowe
Alisha Weir – Mary Page Marlowe (12)
Jennifer Woodward – Understudy Mary Page Marlowe (59, 63 and 69)
Eleanor Worthington-Cox – Mary Page Marlowe (19)
Felix Anderson/Griffin Ashton/Dexter Pulling – Louis Gilbert
CREATIVE TEAM
Tracy Letts – Writer
Matthew Warchus – Director
Rob Howell – Set & Costume
Hugh Vanstone – Lighting
Simon Baker – Sound
Jim Carnahan, CSA – Casting
Sam Stevenson, CDG – Casting
Amy Beadel, CDG for Grindrod Burton Casting – Children’s Casting
Charlie Hughes-D’Aeth – Voice
Penny Dyer – Dialect
Lilac Yosiphon – Associate Director
MARY PAGE MARLOWE
23 September to 1 November 2025
