Last week, I had
the privilege of seeing Jane Anderson's new play Mother of the Maid at The Public Theater.
Anderson, who
also wrote Defying Gravity, uses her
latest play to tell the story of Joan of Arc through the eyes of saint's
mother. The result is a touching story of fame, glory, family, and heartbreak.
Stage and screen
legend Glenn Close plays Isabelle Arc, the titular mother in the piece, and her
daughter is played by Grace Van Patten, a relative newcomer who was also in The
New Group's production of The Whirligig
last year. Both performers hold their own, however, and they are complimented
by a supporting cast that includes Dermot Crowley, Andrew Hovelson, and Daniel
Pearce.
I saw the
matinee performance on Halloween. During the first scene, some ghosts or
goblins must have been playing tricks on us, because a power drill could
clearly be heard somewhere offstage. Close and Van Patten continued through the
noise, but then hammering started. Didn't the noisemaker know there were
multiple matinees going on in the building? Close turned to the audience,
apologized, and asked out loud if something could be done to stop the noise. A
voice over the intercom said, "Absolutely!" The audience burst into
applause.
The intercom
voice said that Ms. Close could go offstage and wait, but Glenn (can I call her
Glenn, now?) said she'd wait with the audience. "Anybody have any
questions about the show?" she asked. Our new personal friend Glenn then
answered questions about the play, her career, and her life. She graciously
complimented both Anderson's play and her co-star Grace. (Sure, we can call her
Grace!) She asked people in the audience where they were from. "Tasmania? When
I went to Paris to shoot Dangerous Liaisons,
we had a nanny to help with my daughter who had just been born, and our nanny was
from Tasmania. The sweetest woman!"
Eventually, the
noise stopped and the performance resumed. If you read this blog regularly, you
know I'm a sucker for Joan of Arc plays, and that my own play Dark Night of the Soul tells the story
of the saint's trial. (It also won the Nittany Theatre at the Barn's 2017
Theatre of the First Amendment Play Festival.) Anderson's handling of the story
is different than most, however, as we glimpse Joan's life through the lives of
others. Some of the most interesting scenes were between Isabelle and a Lady of
the Court, played by Kelley Curran. I'd seen Curran before in the Red Bull
Theater Company's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore,
but she particularly impressed me in this role, as a clueless but well-meaning
noblewoman who wants to help but is powerless amidst the political turmoil of
war-torn France.
