Nov. 23--As most theaters trot out their Scrooge, Schooner or George Bailey, the Victory Gardens Theater opens a difficult, sparse, austere, intense and most assuredly haunting piece that -- given the graphic depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ therein -- is something one more readily associates with Easter.
Around Easter of 2013 was, in fact, when Colm Toibin's "The Testament of Mary" opened (and, two weeks later, closed) on Broadway, a consequence, it was widely declared, not of the literary limitations of Toibin's 80-minute monolog, nor of Fiona Shaw's tour-de-force performance, widely acclaimed in London, but of an overly complicated production that tried to turn a simple conversation with an audience into an overly elaborate banquet of metaphors.
The struggles on Broadway also were an indicator of the risky nature of this piece -- which, for some persons of religious faith, will appear to render a sacred figure in an overly secular fashion. Mary, who is forcefully and movingly played at Victory Gardens by Linda Reiter, appears briefly without vestaments and speaks more of political considerations than matters of faith. She rails, as any mother might, at the multitude of outsiders who claim to know what transpired at the moment of her own son's conception, even though she was the one who was there. And her eyes flash with anguish and anger at her son's determination not to resist his own fate, an end to his life that no mother should be asked to bear. Except, perhaps, this mother.
And yet this is a hardly an irreligious work. And it is quite beautifully written. Toibin is compelled by the force and power of a Biblical figure whose image, especially at Christmas, is far more familiar than her voice or, God knows, her actual point of view.
"The Testament of Mary," began as an 81-page novella published in 2012 by the Irish writer. It is an account of the life of Jesus from the point of view of his mother, told in her voice. Since Jesus indeed had a mother who loved him, we're told, her positions in this piece hardly are unreasonable. She feels what any mother would feel in the circumstances ("I gasped when I saw the cross"), including a resistance to Jesus' excitement at fulfilling his place in history. And most Biblical historians would concur that the people around Jesus at the time of his life were, despite his doings, principally concerned with the dangerous political realities of moment, and had little time or ability to stand around giving thanks to God.
The former artistic director of the Gardens, Dennis Zacek, has returned to direct this piece, and he mostly allows Toibin's words, and Reiter's performance, to speak for themselves. This is a rare opportuity for a no-nonsense Chicago actress who has worked here for decades, and Reiter takes as Gospel the notion that Mary was very smart and, therefore, resistant to being made a pawn in anyone's larger plan. Reiter has never been given to linguistic pretension nor intense emotionalism, and her Mary is, first and foremost, a mother under duress, and recognizably so.
The projection-driven setting, by Christopher Ash, is quite subtle, Biblical iconography inhabiting the shadows as Mary speaks her mind. Through Reiter, she achieves a potent connection.
Most notable are the sequences wherein Mary describes her moments with the son she loved, intimacies undermined by the mutual knowledge that he was going away, doing bigger things, leaving his mother in pain. In this unpretentious staging, which has many quiet rewards, both Zacek and Reiter home in on one of the work's most potent themes: what it must have been like for a woman who was supposed to not have any feelings of her own. Especially any that might stop her son from doing what he was supposed to do.
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Twitter @ChrisJonesTrib
3 STARS
When: Through Dec. 14
Where: Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Tickets: $20-$60 at 773-871-3000 or victorygardens.org
