The Testament of Mary (play)

The Testament of Mary is a play written by Colm Tóibín, based on his 2012 novella of the same name and 2011 play Testament. The play is a solo performance depicting "the mother of Jesus [who] tells her story of her son’s Crucifixion" and questions his death and divinity. After a 2011 Irish production, the play ran briefly on Broadway in 2013, closing after only two weeks of a scheduled 12-week run, but it was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Play.

Tóibín wrote in The New York Times that he began writing the play because he felt "almost a vacuum of faith in Ireland" in late 2008. He said "the impulse to write the play was not political, was not to intervene in a debate about the church, but rather to work with a voice that had mattered to me personally, a voice that was iconic as well as human." Further, he noted that he had "seen great performances in the Irish theater", which meant that "In their performances the act of utterance itself took on a sort of soaring nervous power."

After the initial reading at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011 of an earlier version of the play and the writing of the novella, Tóibin "rewrote the original play, with the images starker, the voice even more urgent and filled with human pain."

The Testament of Mary was initially performed at the Dublin Theatre Festival, under the title Testament in October 2011, and was in the form of a monologue. The production was directed by Garry Hynes and starred Marie Mullen. The novella was written after this production.

The play opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in a limited run on April 22, 2013 after 27 previews; it closed on May 5, 2013, only two weeks into its scheduled 12-week run.Fiona Shaw starred as Mary. The play was directed by Deborah Warner, with sets by Tom Pye, costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Jennifer Tipton and original music and sound design by Mel Mercier.

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Wikipedia