Mary Jane (TCG Edition) - by Amy Herzog (Paperback)

About the Book

A new play about a mother's devotion by award-winning playwright Amy Herzog

Book Synopsis

"The most profound and harrowing of Ms. Herzog's many fine plays." --Jesse Green, New York Times

Armed with medicines, feeding tubes, and various medical equipment, Mary Jane is a single mother and indefatigable force when it comes to caring for her young, sick child. A moving play about the stalwart endurance of a devoted mother, Mary Jane demonstrates the prevailing strength of the human will when fueled by unconditional love.

Review Quotes

"Mary Jane is a play with unexpected grace and optimism, and one that offers faith in the power of communion."-- "Vogue"

"A heart-stopping play... Amy Herzog's devastating new work is must-see theater for anyone with a heart."-- "Variety"

"A wrenching tale of everyday heroism that is all the more touching for its total lack of sentimentality. I've never seen a more honest portrayal of the day-to-day demands of caregiving, or a more moving tribute to a mother's love. It might just be Ms. Herzog's best play to date."-- "Wall Street Journal"

"Amy Herzog's exquisite and deeply moving Mary Jane...succeeds in dramatizing kindness, attentiveness, honesty, connection."-- "Time Out New York"

"An exquisite, bracing drama...An unblinking portrayal of endurance in the narrow parallel universe of the chronically unwell, and what it's like when the walls start closing in...The writer's mix of sympathy and showmanship is gorgeously ruthless."-- "Village Voice"

"For a heart-piercing ride-along on the avalanche of emotion engulfing the parent of a desperately ill, incapacitated child, playwright Amy Herzog exceeds her own fine record of accomplishment with Mary Jane."-- "Washington Post"

"Herzog at her best... Confirming its author as one of the most lucid and sensitive American playwriting voices to have emerged in the past decade."-- "Hollywood Reporter"

"...quietly compelling and uncompromising... Herzog has always possessed a gifted ear. Here more than ever her dialogue offers insight into each character by what is not said. This subtext, or verbal shorthand, communicates deep understanding between like minds and acutely empathetic friends."-- "New Haven Register"

"Mary Jane is more like a Samuel Beckett play than a medical drama. It is not about what happens to Mary Jane. It is more about her endurance and her attitude... It has many expressions of hope and perseverance... a terrific, tear-inducing, universal tale of caring and coping."-- "Hartford Courant"

About the Author

Amy Herzog's plays include After the Revolution (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Lilly Award); 4000 Miles (Lincoln Center Theater, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Obie Award for Best New American Play); The Great God Pan (Playwrights Horizons) and Belleville (Yale Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize). She has received commissions from Yale Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Playwrights Horizons. She is a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill Award, the Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. She is a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, and an alumna of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Play Group at Ars Nova and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. She received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.