Mary Page Marlowe
Closed 1h 30m
Mary Page Marlowe
78

Mary Page Marlowe NYC Reviews and Tickets

78%
(198 Ratings)
Positive
86%
Mixed
12%
Negative
2%
Members say
Great acting, Absorbing, Thought-provoking, Intelligent, Great writing

About the Show

Second Stage presents Tracy Letts's drama, which offers a haunting portrait of a complex woman, and demonstrates how a series of forgotten moments can add up to one memorable life. Starring Tatiana Maslany.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (198)

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80 Reviews | 9 Followers
96
Absorbing, Great acting, Masterful

See it if This play is a beautiful slice of humanity. There is not one weak link in the large cast.

Don't see it if This play may be too low key for some theatre goers.

774 Reviews | 246 Followers
95
Clever, Thought-provoking, Epic, Funny, Masterful

See it if Non-linear puzzle play w/great acting. We see scenes in-between major events in Mary Page's life. Her character growth occurs off-stage.

Don't see it if You don't want to spend time after the play figuring out what happened. You don't like multiple actresses playing the same character. Read more

338 Reviews | 69 Followers
92
Absorbing, Ambitious, Great acting, Resonant, Thought-provoking

See it if You want to see a fascinating exploration of an ordinary woman's life.

Don't see it if You don't like theater that requires you to think.

SW
180 Reviews | 26 Followers
91
Great writing, Masterful, Refreshing, Absorbing, Well constructed

See it if you enjoy thoughtful & carefully constructed meditations on life & being a woman in America, where the sharpness is all between the lines.

Don't see it if you prefer linear chronology & things spelled out for you (having multiple actresses play MP works surprisingly well, but takes some focus).

55 Reviews | 6 Followers
90
Exquisite, Great writing, Great acting, Resonant

See it if You like theater that is patient and finds beauty and drama in the small things.

Don't see it if You are more concerned with connecting A to B instead of letting tone drive the story.

65 Reviews | 20 Followers
90
Ambitious, Intriguing, Profound

See it if A serious play with a nonlinear narrative appeals to you and you are comfortable with the patience and attention required

Don't see it if You would be bothered by the lack of temporal sequence and the fact that the main character is played by six different actresses Read more

304 Reviews | 37 Followers
90
Absorbing, Edgy, Great acting, Intelligent, Profound

See it if for a passionately acted, one scene after another intense personal drama.

Don't see it if you can't concentrate on figuring out an intricate puzzle or have no feeling for people baring their souls.

311 Reviews | 45 Followers
89
Absorbing, Ambitious, Intense, Intelligent

See it if You are up for the life story of complex character, Mary Page, portrayed by 6 actresses under Tracy Letts' brilliant direction.

Don't see it if you prefer uncomplicated stories where concentration is not required.

Critic Reviews (38)

The New York Times
July 12th, 2018

"Gripping...Some of those moments flirt with inconsequence or facile symbolism...Another confidently expressive staging by Neugebauer, makes it coolly legible...On-the-nose moments...sometimes left me feeling that 'Mary Page Marlowe,' however gorgeously acted, might not be hiding much of anything in the switchbacks of its distorted chronology. But with patience, and some unscrambling to restore the story’s natural order in your head, you may find a few powerful American themes arising."
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Time Out New York
July 12th, 2018

"Fascinating...While the play’s wide scope keeps the audience at a bird’s-eye remove, its components are vivid close-up snapshots. Director Lila Neugebauer keeps Mary Page in hard, revealing focus even as the character sometimes smudges herself in denial or passivity. 'Mary Page Marlowe' combines moments of crisis into a longer view of time. It approaches life—this one life—with something that feels like wisdom."
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New York Magazine / Vulture
July 12th, 2018

"Intermittently compelling, ultimately vanilla...It’s not hard to pick out the big themes in Letts’s play, which is part of what can make it feel surfacey despite its attempt to go deeper...It’s a tricky dance Letts is doing, as the man who’s literally pulling the levers and stipulating the roles in Mary Page’s life, while she grapples with her flickering consciousness of the fact that she’s allowed men to do just that. I wish I could have seen the character rebel against the playwright a little more."
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The Wall Street Journal
July 19th, 2018

“I called it ‘the most purely beautiful play that Mr. Letts has given us’ in my review of the Chicago premiere, and now...it looks—if possible—even more impressive...The plausibility of this production is also owing in large part to the six actors who play Mr. Letts’s small-town everywoman, all of whom look and sound as true to life as a sequence of snapshots by a master photographer. No less worthy of praise is the equally masterly staging of Lila Neugebauer."
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New York Daily News
July 12th, 2018

"A frustratingly non-impact and not particularly well-acted drama...The play nags from the get-go...The script drops references to puzzles and quilts – two decent metaphors for piecing together a whole from disparate parts. In the end, this accountant’s story reminds that not every balance sheet or life — or play — adds up."
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Variety
July 12th, 2018

"Director Lila Neugebauer, who brilliantly grasped the big theatrical gestures in 'The Wolves' at Lincoln Center, is just as scrupulous about defining small but definitive moments...The episodic structure is as integral to the play as its content. It’s up to us to fill in the blanks, because this is how life is lived, in little fits and starts that we later recall and either re-live in our minds or decide to forget."
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The Hollywood Reporter
July 12th, 2018

"It's a testament to the sensitivity of Lila Neugebauer's production of 'Mary Page Marlowe,' and the subtle connective thread binding the half-dozen actresses playing the title character at various ages, that the silences are when Tracy Letts' drama achieves its sharpest poignancy...The unimpeachably naturalistic dialogue reveals major and minor shadings throughout, but it's in the brief wordless moments of overlap during scene changes that the play's quiet force creeps up on you."
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The Observer
July 12th, 2018

"What Letts is doing is technically neat. Hopscotching through decades, he’s controlling the flow of information...Neugebauer’s overly complicated production and structural limitations steadily diminish our investment in Mary...So much joy and tragedy should not make such dull viewing. And yet, when your hero is a passive cipher, it is...Letts is too skilled a writer for individual scenes and passages not to shine in isolation, but the whole leaves you unsatisfied."
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