Mary Jane
By Amy Herzog. Directed by Caroline Byrne.
- Dates
- Tuesday 1 to Saturday 26 June Previews from Thursday 27 May
- Show Times
- Evening shows Monday-Saturday: 7:30pm Saturday matinees: 2pm
- Duration
- Approx. 1hr 35min (No interval)
- Audience Advisory
- Age recommendation: 14+
Hailed by critics internationally as a masterpiece of empathy, Mary Jane follows the life of an indefatigable single mother living in Queens, New York.
Our lead is devoted to caring for her young son, Alex, who lives with severe chronic illness. Navigating a labyrinth of medical machinery, insurance hurdles, and daily exhaustion, Mary Jane never loses her fierce optimism or her capacity for human connection. Without a strong network or family, and a deficit in public care services, Mary Jane connects with those who orbit her life: from her building superintendent and nurses, a Hasidic mother and a Buddhist nun, the play paints an extraordinary portrait of the invisible networks that sustain us when life tests our limits.
‘I think sometimes when other people look at me – they’re like, whoa, but actually, being inside it? I don’t know, it’s not so…I think they’d be surprised’
Infused with astonishing warmth, piercing humour and deep emotional clarity, Mary Jane captures the quiet heroism of ordinary life, celebrating the radical power of compassion, community and endurance.
Mary Jane was nominated for four Tony Awards in 2024, including Best Play.
Company
Creatives
Amy Herzog is an award-winning American playwright whose work has received widespread critical acclaim. Her plays include Mary Jane, which received the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award; 4000 Miles, for which she was awarded the 2012 Obie Award for Best New American Play and named a Pulitzer Prize finalist; After the Revolution, which received the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; and Belleville, a Drama Desk Award nominee. Other notable works include The Wendy Play, which was presented at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
Her plays have been developed and produced at leading theatres across the United States, including Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Club. She has received commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Steppenwolf, alongside numerous honours, including the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Helen Merrill Award, and the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Herzog is an alumna of Youngblood, Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama and has taught playwriting at Bryn Mawr and Yale. She currently teaches at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
Caroline Byrne is a theatre director. She was previously Associate Director at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill and at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Previous Gate Theatre credits include Dancing at Lughnasa.
Other Theatre credits include Dublin Gothic (Abbey Theatre); Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre); Spring Awakening (Young Vic Theatre); Faustus: That Damned Woman (Headlong, Lyric Hammersmith);Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art); All’s Well That Ends Well (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse); Katie Roche (Abbey Theatre); Oliver Twist (Regents Park Open Air Theatre); The Wheel (Milton Court Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe); Parallel Macbeth (Clare Theatre, Young Vic); Eclipsed (Gate Theatre, London) and Shakespeare in a Suitcase (co-directed with Tim Crouch for Royal Shakespeare Company).
Caroline has also had productions at Bush Theatre, Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Rep.
Booking Information
- Tickets
- Previews: €16.50, €26.50, €31.50, €36.50Monday to Wednesday: €26.50, €41.50, €46.50, €51.50Thursday to Sunday (incl. matinees): €36.50, €46.50, €49.50, €58.50
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- Group Offer (6+)
10% discount for group bookings of 6+.
T&Cs apply. Not redeemable in conjunction with any other offer. Rate applicable for groups of 6 or more.
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Seniors can avail of discounted tickets to see any show here at the Gate Theatre. These tickets can be purchased directly from the Box Office (by phone or email) on the day before you intend to attend the show. Tickets €21.50 (incl. Building Upkeep Levy)
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