The reviews are rolling in for Emma Horwitz's Mary Gets Hers, which made its world premiere Off-Broadway at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space September 11. The tragicomedy, directed by Josiah Davis (Mr. Saturday Night), runs through October 7. Playwrights Realm presents and produce the play, the company's first in-person production since 2020.
Inspired by Hrosvitha of Ganderesheim's Abraham, or the Rise and Repentance of Mary, Mary Gets Hers is set in a slapstick take of 10th century Germany in the midst of a plague. It follows an orphan named Mary who is found by two isolated zealots who want to protect Mary's purity at all costs—but, Mary has other plans.
The cast includes Octavia Chavez-Richmond as Ephraim, Kai Heath (Men on Boats, Much Ado About Nothing) as The Soldier, Susannah Perkins (The Wolves) as Abraham, Claire Siebers as Master of the Inn and others, and Haley Wong as Mary, reprising the role she originated in the play’s workshops at Brown University.
Read the reviews here.
The New York Times (Rhoda Feng)*
New York Theatre Guide (Amelia Merrill)
New York Stage Review (David Finkle)
New York Theater (Jonathan Mandell)
TheaterMania (Zachary Stewart)
*This review requires creating a free account or a paid subscription.
Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
The production also features scenic design by You-Shin Chen, costume design by Camilla Dely, lighting design by Cha See, and sound design by Kathy Ruvuna. Casting is by Claire Yenson.
Kate Croasdale serves as production stage manager alongside assistant stage manager Sammy Landau. Five OHM Productions provides production supervision.
The production unites Davis and Horowitz who previously collaborated on a workshop for the Writing is Live Festival as graduate students. Both, as Davis said in a statement, “carry tensions with [their respective] religious backgrounds that inform how this play can be simultaneously irreverent and reverent.”
Horwitz developed the play at Playwrights Realm through a Writing Fellowship, and Mary Gets Hers ultimately received a reading as part of the INK'd Festival of New Plays with Davis as director. Horowitz makes her Off-Broadway debut with the work.
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