Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture

It WAS Worth It

“I fled before it was over but if you want witnesses then I am one and I can tell you now, when you say that he redeemed the world, I will say that it was not worth it. It was not worth it.”

The Testament of Mary, written by Colm Tóibín and directed by Deborah Warner, is not a religious play. Outside the Walter Kerr Theatre on the first night, there were protests against its “anti-Christian” messages. I also am pretty sure that during the show, a woman walked out – now, was it because of the sacrilegiousness of it? I’m not sure, but I decided to put that story on the exiting woman.

Why did I want to see The Testament of Mary? Well, it is a one woman show featuring Fiona Shaw. Shaw is quite the talented actress, as I’ve seen her in Harry Potter as Aunt Petunia and True Blood as the witch Marni. Her role in True Blood in particular was really strong and powerful, and I thought she did an amazing job – not to mention the fact that she put on a really believable Louisiana accent! So, one reason I wanted to see the play was because of her. The second reason is because I am just overly interested in the stories behind the Christian religion. Yes, I do realize that this is a work of fiction and does not directly influence Christian theology, but nonetheless, I think it plays an important role in the history.

Before the production starts, the audience is allowed to go on stage to see the props and setting of the show. In a glass box on stage right sits Fiona Shaw as Mary. She is dressed in traditional “Mary garb” as I call it – the blue robe over a reddish-pinkish dress of sorts. In her left hand she holds a red apple (I believe representing the “original sin”) and in her right hand she holds a bouquet of lilies. Lilies pop up in many depictions of Mary, especially in the Annunciation scenes, and represent her purity and fertility. Along with walking around Fiona Shaw, I was able to see a vulture as well! The vulture, though, is the one thing that was a bit confusing to me in the story line.

Mary tells a story of a man who came to her, forcing her to watch a vulture eat multiple rabbits. I’ve attempted to look up this story online, but it seems that it is one of Tóibín’s inventions. I did, however, find some biblical quotes mentioning vultures in Matthew’s Gospel:

Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near (New Living Translation 2007 – Matthew 24:28).

All I can take away from this is that the vulture represented the imminent death of Mary’s son. She never mentions his name. Fiona Shaw’s interpretation makes Mary seem to be an average mother. She loved her son dearly but was gravely disappointed by the company he kept.

“He gathered misfits, men without fathers, men who could not look a woman in the eye. ‘Not one of you is normal!’ I said.”

As her son grew older, he was more influenced by this gang of misfits. Though he was their leader, they put ideas in his head. The pompous attitude that her son carried with him proved dangerous as both the Jews and the Romans grew wary of him. Even after his death, Mary still doesn’t “approve” of his ways. She even says she would rather live in a world where blind men couldn’t see, where the crippled couldn’t walk, and where the dead remained in the ground. She further ridicules her son’s followers after his death. They follow her around, hoping to get a good story from her to put in their gospels. But she won’t lie. She won’t pretend that she remained at the cross until her son took his last breaths. She won’t pretend that she had some miraculous, immaculate conception – she remembers when she conceived! And she absolutely will not believe that her son’s death was worth it, and she absolutely will not believe her son was the “Son of God.”

“ ‘He died to redeem the world… His death has freed mankind from darkness and from sin… His suffering was necessary… It was how mankind would be saved.’

“ ‘Saved?’ I asked and raised my voice. ‘Who has been saved?’

“ ‘Those who came before him and those who live now and those who are not yet born…’

“ ‘Saved from death?’ I asked.

“ ‘Saved for eternal life,’ he said. ‘Everyone in the world will know eternal life.’

“ ‘Oh, eternal life!’ I replied. ‘Oh, everyone in the world.’ ”

In the end, Mary is no one special (at least in a biblical sense). She is the mother of a dead son. She is a disappointed mother. She is a grieving mother. And above all, she is a mother who feels guilty for not being with her son.

Overall, the production was pretty magnificent. Though it was a two o’clock matinee and that happens to be my nap time, I was still able to follow every word Shaw spoke. The music by Mel Mercier was quite fantastic. It was eerie as well as calming, and had its moments of shock (whenever Mary would throw something to the floor, I would jump in my seat at the loud background noises). The lighting was also something special, as the black back screen would occasionally open up to create a blue, white, or yellow atmosphere. There was also running water on stage, and at the end Fiona Shaw stripped down to her birthday suit to take a dunk in the well.

I really loved the stage direction by Deborah Warner as interpreted by Shaw. So often she would assume poses that are reminiscent of religious imagery of Mary or of Jesus or of anything biblically themed. Even in the shadows cast by the lighting design (Jennifer Tipton), there was a sense that the director really tried to get this imagery across.

The set and props were well designed, though at times the stage just seemed to be a mess of objects lying around. But, I guess this makes sense as Tóibín was trying to create a setting in Ephesus (in Turkey, where Mary is believed to have lived out her life) where “years after the crucifixion, as the new dawn of Christianity was emerging in the world, and the story of what happened was being written down,” Mary resided, alone and unhappy.

Whereas Mary, at the very conclusion of the play, states that her son’s death as a salvation for mankind was simply, from the perspective of a mother, not worth it, The Testament of Mary, as a thought-provoking and riveting theatre experience IS worth it indeed.

The Testament of Mary
Walter Kerr Theatre
April 27, 2013

Marina B. Nebro