This Is Mary Brown
Opening Night: June 11, 2015
Closing: June 28, 2015
Theater: La MaMa E.T.C.
The epic story of a mother’s life. In this beautiful one-woman show, Obie-award winner Winsome Brown channels her wickedly funny Irish mother, her Alaskan frontiersman father, and her engaging family to tell the story of a simple life. With deft humor and a light touch, she reveals Mary’s struggles with aging and alcoholism, her war-stories of a 45-year marriage with children, and the sad grace of her death. A deeply touching story of family, thrilling and generous in its love, honesty, and humor. In the beautiful one-woman show, “This Is Mary Brown,” Obie-award winner Winsome Brown channels her wickedly funny Irish mother, her Alaskan frontiersman father, and her engaging family to tell the story of a simple life.
BUY TICKETSREAD THE REVIEWS:
June 14, 2015
The title character of “This Is Mary Brown” didn’t lead an exciting life, but she inspired a lovely little play. This one-woman show, written and performed by her daughter, Winsome Brown, never sugarcoats a somewhat sad story, and that honesty makes it all the more admirable. The 70-minute tale starts off in a cemetery, where Winsome and her brother, Nicholas, search for their mother’s grave. After finding it, Winsome flashes back to her own childhood, playing Mary and over a dozen other characters. An early memory finds the Dublin-born Mary, a heavy smoker, motioning to Winsome. “Come here, pet, and put out your hand. I haven’t an ashtray,” Mary says, tapping her cigarette, then instructing Winsome to empty her cupped palm into the fireplace. Many of the prominent recollections involve Mary’s long-term struggles with alcoholism. Her drinking led her to waste decades of her life, she says, and created tensions among family members. Yet through it all the group remained fairly close, even when Mary was on her deathbed. There, as a priest performed last rites, Nicholas was “making googly eyes at Mum, winking and bugging, trying to make her laugh.”
READ THE REVIEW