Mary & Me at Hatbox Theatre

Ireland 1986. Fifteen year old Hannah Brennan lives in a claustrophobic small town. Sure, she has friends, but no one who understands her, no one she can confide in who will listen to her.And she is going to need a lot of understanding.After touring Ireland, appearing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in the Brighton Fringe in 2017 with playwright and actress Irene Kelleher as Hannah, Mary and Me began its United States premier tour in New Hampshire in 2020. Directed by Peter Josephson and starring producer and actress Emily Karel as Hannah, this seventy five minute one woman show takes its audience on a journey of laughter, determination, love, and heartbreak. It is the relevance of the play that first resonated with Miss Karel.Hannah struggles against the constraints imposed upon her by the strict moral and social doctrine that governs her community. She laments the fact that people "don't talk" to one another truthfully for fear of being ostracized. Consequently, she has no one to turn to for help or guidance except Mary, a statue of the mother of Jesus who watches over a Magdalene Grotto. As a society we continue to struggle with constraints imposed upon us by the doctrine of the day, whether that be religious or social, and the fear that we will be ostracized for expressing opinions and beliefs that may run contrary to what is deemed "acceptable." Female bodily autonomy is of course, another issue raised by the play. It is sobering to think that thirty six years after the events in Mary and Me would have taken place, we are still unable to come to a consensus about a woman's right to make decisions about her body.Despite the dark subject matter, Miss Karel stresses that audiences will not come away from Mary and Me feeling beaten down. The playwright, Irene Kelleher, writes with nuance, compassion, and humor. My hope is that no matter where an individual may stand on the issue of female bodily autonomy, they will leave the play with an understanding of the stakes for women who are in the position of carrying a pregnancy they do not wish to carry.