Sydney Reviews

Ice cold likes Alex.

Alex is a two year old born at 25 weeks, survivor of three strokes and a constant bundle of special needs care for his single mother, Mary Jane, the titular character of Amy Herzog’s dark and dour play, Mary Jane.

Alex, we are told, likes the touch of cold, of snowflakes and such, and the Old Fitz venue has taken this as verbatim, to an experiential degree. The venue becomes the Old Frigidaire rather than the Old Fitz. The pace is glacial, and so was the auditorium.

Under the direction of Rachel Chant, the production is the epitome of naturalism, so much so that the performance felt like hanging out in a hospital waiting room.

The play is a real kitchen sinker with Soham Apte’s design incorporating a kitchen sink, frig, and futon, which doubles as a couch with a throw over. The frig survives a concertina set change into a children's hospital waiting room, sink usurped by a microwave, an appliance that facilitates a moment of macro wave comedy.

Eloise Snape is quite splendid as Mary Jane, dedicated and distracted to exhaustion, focused on the survival of her son against insurmountable odds.

Di Adams, Sophie Bloom, Isabel Burton and Janine Watson double in various roles, including supportive family and hospital staff, to an orthodox Jew, mother of seven facing the loss of one and a childless Christian convert to Buddhism. These characters feel inserted for some sort of spiritual invocation, but God obviously doesn't get the plight of infant fatality. Guess you had to be there.

A late entrance cast member, Gloria the goldfish, becomes a bit of a scene stealer and keeps breaking the fourth wall. A tutorial in determining Gloria’s gender tanks.

On a scale of two or more, Gloria the goldfish scores. Fin.