| A flavor of photorealism is a new emphasis in playwriting. It can be remarkably clarifying and dramatically sharp when used sparingly, as in Herzog's economical "Mary Jane," which managed to tell a young mother's entire medical crisis story in under 90 minutes, the quotidian reality of in-home care and a sudden shift to a hospital stunning complemented by a production's style. Kaufman managed to be razor-sharp in getting medical details right, while adding an almost poetic dimension in the use of an expanding physical playing area. A woman and unseen disabled child locked in a claustrophobic apartment, hugging the downstage 4th wall, confronted the threatening world as the set seemed to rip wide open. It was theatrical magic tethered to painstaking trajectory of incremental loss. Sometimes, a director can take a documentary text and expand its reach. It sounds like the opposite is true here. |
