Written by the acclaimed author Colm Toibin. Here are the press notes:
The Testament of Mary takes place after the Crucifixion. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is in the city of Ephesus where she is both guarded and protected. As two of her son's followers set about giving shape to Jesus' story, Mary tells her own story - the one which has not been heard.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
So there's going to be three different one-woman shows about famous women in history opening this spring on Broadway? I can't be the only one who thinks that's a little crazy.
Given that the three women are Fiona Shaw, Holland Taylor, and Bette Midler though, my complaining will end right now. What an exciting season it's shaping up to be.
Robbie, I bought the book but haven't started it yet. I heard Toibin give a reading of it on NPR a while back and it already sounded like it was written as a sort of monologue. Is that the case?
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
But I'm not sure the novel(la?), as it is, could simply be cut down to an acting edition. I imagine it would take some work to make it go from a literary beauty to a dynamic stage piece.
This was first produced on stage back in 2011, a year before the book came out, under the name Testament. It ran as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival in Ireland, starred Marie Mullen and was directed by Garry Hynes. It got very good reviews, I believe.
What's this? A play that's not about the puny problems of puny people? Plop my monocle!
"It's now rather very common to hear people say 'I'm rather offended by that'. As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more than a whine. It has no meaning, no purpose. It has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that'. Well, so f**king what?"--Stephen Fry
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Posted: 1/8/13 at 01:27pm