Fragmented Family Saga starring Susan Sarandon
“We’re like the Kennedys but without the children, the power and the money.”
Mary Page Marlowe
Matthew Warchus’s last production at the Old Vic has scooped Susan Sarandon and Andrea Riseborough to play scenes as Mary Page Marlowe at differing ages. Tracy Letts who wrote August Osage County has written this biography of Mary Page Marlowe as a jigsaw of scenes not in chronological order which runs for just one hour forty minutes. This may prove quite challenging for the audience but it does make you concentrate on her life line.
The set has a table laden with different patchwork quilts, often made by American women, a symbol of making something new out of something old and worn and sometimes recording memories in the embroidery. In one of the later scenes we see Susan Sarandon as Mary aged 63 asking a dry cleaner Ben (Gilbert Kyem Jnr) if he can remove the stains on the old quilt, a metaphor for her life not to have so much unhappiness in it.
So to the patchwork of Mary’s life. We open with Andrea Riseborough as Mary Page Marlowe aged 40 at a crucial break in her life. She is explaining to her children, teenager Wendy (Clare Hughes) and Louie (Felix Anderson) who is younger, the arrangements to be made as their parents divorce and where they will live in view of their mother taking a new job in Lexington, Kentucky 153 miles away from their current home and schools in Dayton Ohio. Wendy is quite vocal in her resistance to the plan; Louie is quieter.
In the second scene Mary is 19 (Ella Worthington-Cox), with two friends playing with Tarot cards. It emerges that Robert Bedwell proposed to Mary but she turned him down. The third scene sees Susan Sarandon for the first time, aged as 59 year old Mary and married to Andy (Hugh Quarshie). There is news about her criminal record being spent and Andy shows how he has supported her. We can deduce that she has spent time in prison for a third conviction for driving under the influence and was released on license. Later in another scene she tells us, she thought she was the happiest with husband Andy. Certainly Quarshie’s warm portrayal is of someone who deeply cares for her.
In Scene 4, Mary is a baby and her mother Roberta Marlowe (Eden Epstein) is squabbling with Mary’s father Ed Marlowe (Noah Weatherby) as the baby cries. In Scene 5, there are implications that she may have had an abortion whilst at college. In Scene 6 She’s married but unfaithful and seeking therapy with a psychotherapist (Lauren Ward).
I started to lose count of the scenes but at aged 69 Mary (a very moving Susan Sarandon) is in hospital on a drip and reflecting on her life and crying. She says, “I wasn’t a great mom but I liked it.” Back to 50 and Andrea Riseborough who has the unhappy scenes where she is self-medicating with alcohol. Here is the third conviction for DUI and second husband Ray (Paul Thornley).
Playing Mary at 27 and 36, Rosy McEwen seems to have more independence and sexual freedom. The scene I found the most moving and heart breaking was the penultimate one with Roberta Marlowe (Eden Epstein), the alcoholic mother cruelly showing up her 12 year old daughter Mary (Alisha Weir) in her blue cardigan by telling her how bad her singing is. I had determined to nominate Alisha Weir as the best newcomer and on research realised she was the lead in the film of Matilda.
Rob Howell’s set is in the reconfigured apace in the round at the Old Vic but there are some scenes when you only see the rear of certain Marys which is a shame. The performances throughout are strong and it seems that the casting recognises acting strengths. Susan Sarandon has the most sympathetic and Andrea Riseborough the toughest life events. I was happy to see Mary Page Marlowe twice but this is a painfully short run.
Production Notes
Mary Page Marlowe
Written by Tracy Letts
Directed by Matthew Warchus
Cast
Starring:
Andrea Riseborough
Eleanor Worthington-Cox
Hugh Quarshie
Lauren Ward
Melanie La Barrie
Paul Thornley
Ronan Raftery
Rosy McEwen
Susan Sarandon
Kingsley Morton
Alisha Wei
Gilbert Kyem Jnr
Daniella Arthur-Kennedy
Eden Epstein
Clare Hughes
Noah Weatherby
Felix Anderson
Griffin Ashton
Dexter Pulling
Creatives
Director: Matthew Warchus
Designer: Rob Howell
Lighting Designer: Hugh Vanstone
Sound Designer: Simon Baker
Information
Running Time: One hour 40 minutes without an interval
Booking until 1st November 2025
Theatre:
Old Vic
The Cut
Waterloo
London SE1 8NB
Tube/Rail : Waterloo
Telephone: 0344 871 7628
Website: oldvictheatre.com
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
at the Old Vic
at a preview performance
on 4th October 2025
