At one point early on in “My Name Is Lucy Barton,” the successful author played by Laura Linney shares some advice she was given by a writing instructor: “Go to the page with a heart as open as the heart of God.” And there is something delightfully open-hearted about Linney’s approach to this material, the unlikely adaptation of a first-person 2016 Elizabeth Strout novel that would not seem at first glance to lend itself to the stage (or the screen).
The bulk of the action takes place in a Manhattan hospital room, where Barton is laid up for nine long weeks with a mysterious illness following appendicitis. Spoiler alert: She doesn’t die. But isolated from her husband and two young daughters, she has plenty of time to take stock — especially with the sudden arrival of her long-estranged mother, who turns up at the foot of her bed from her home in rural Illinois armed with local gossip and a stubborn resistance to dwelling on the past or her shortcomings as a parent in a household riven by poverty and abuse.
Alone on stage for the 90-minute running time of the show, which opened Wednesday at Broadway’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Linney skillfully segues between the authorial voice of Lucy and the sharp Midwestern twang of her mother without ever veering into caricature.
Bob Crowley’s simple set design, supplemented by Luke Halls’ video projections, helps set the scene for Linney’s performance, which maintains a cunning sense of narrative progression even as she digresses far off the beaten path. (The adaptation is by Rona Munro.)
Under Richard Eyre’s nuanced direction, she maintains full command of the story even as it meanders from Lucy’s hospital stay to flashbacks to her hardscrabble, TV-free Illinois upbringing to glimpses at a future success borne of sacrifice and loss.
And yes, there are repercussions to this very American story of escape and re-invention — which are perhaps amplified because our hero is a woman. “I did not fly across the country to have you tell me that we’re trash,” her mother chastises Lucy when she hints at the distance, both physical and intellectual, her daughter has placed between them. And while a male hero might shrug off that slight, Lucy feels the brunt of it in that moment — and pangs of regret about some of her choices.
What also emerges is how much her mother’s stubbornness and self-determination — and her ability to stay with a difficult PTSD-afflicted WWII veteran — have influenced her daughter’s ability to chart a very different path for herself. Lucy admits to being stunned that this country bumpkin managed to navigate a big-city airport, taxis and the byzantine halls of a major urban hospital. “Wasn’t easy,” her mother tells her. “But I have a tongue in my head and I used it.”
Lucy does too. But more importantly, she has a luminously open heart.
10 Best New York Theater Productions of 2019, From 'The Sound Inside' to 'Halfway Bitches' (Photos)
TheWrap critic Robert Hofler ranks this year's top shows -- and original productions continued to outshine revivals.
10. "Do You Feel Anger?" by Mara Nelson-Greenberg (Off Broadway, Vineyard Theatre)
Female employees of a debt collection agency endure harassment from the boss and other male clowns. The author's hilarious dialogue subverts our expectations at every plot twist, as well as several times in between. Nelson-Greenberg brings a great new voice to the theater. Directed by Margot Bordelon.
9. "Grief Is the Thing With Feathers," by Enda Walsh (Off Broadway, St. Ann's Warehouse)
The playwright adapts Max Porter's novel about a young widower grieving his dead wife. Cillian Murphy took flight through the nightmare of the character's pain in the year's most technically dazzling production, directed by Walsh.
8. "Ain't No Mo," by Jordan E. Cooper (Off Broadway, Public Theater)
The U.S. government makes an offer that black people aren't supposed to refuse in this ultra-sharp and scary satire. Cooper not only wrote the play but delivered one of the year's most unforgettable performances, playing an airline employee from hell. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb.
7. "The Sound Inside," by Adam Rapp (Broadway)
Mary-Louise Parker writes up a storm in a riveting new drama that explores the creative process. Will Hochman, in his Broadway debut, is equally fine as her troubled creative-writing student. Directed by David Cromer.
6. "Daddy," by Jeremy O. Harris (Off Broadway, Vineyard Theater and the New Group)
Regression and mutual exploitation are the hallmarks of an art-world affair between two men (Alan Cumming and Ronald Peet) of completely different backgrounds. "Daddy" is the play that got the "Slave Play" author into the Yale School of Drama. Directed by the gifted Danya Taymor.
5. "Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus," by Taylor Mac (Broadway)
Nathan Lane cleaned up a big, bloody and inspired mess of a political disaster. Mac's demented comedy manages to improve mightily on Shakespeare's worst play. Directed with total irreverence by George. C. Wolfe.
4. "Marys Seacole," by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Off Broadway, LCT3)
Two Jamaican nurses speak across a century and a half to bring comfort to people who don't care about them. This drama is the arresting follow-up to the author's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Fairview." Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz with a harrowing battle scene.
3. "Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven," by Stephen Adly Guirgis (Off Broadway, Atlantic Theater Company
This drama set in an all-female homeless shelter is a female "Iceman Cometh" for the 21st century -- and a lot more fun than anything written by Eugene O'Neill. The play is replete with big issues, none of which Guirgis ever turns into a sermon. John Ortiz directs the mammoth, talented cast.
2. "Make Believe," by Bess Wohl (Off Broadway, Second Stage)
Childhood traumas continue to haunt a family in their adult years. Wohl child-proofed her amazing play by making the kids' overacting an asset. Michael Greif directed them with assurance, and their grown-up counterparts were terrific too.
1. "A Strange Loop," by Michael R. Jackson (Off Broadway, Playwrights Horizons)
The writer defies the musical jinx of wearing three hats: book writer, lyricist and composer. Jackson is superb at all three tasks in this musical about writing a musical. In a lousy year for new original tuners, "Loop" is the real thing. Stephen Brackett directed the stream-of-conscious story like a master helmer.
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For the second year in a row, original works instead of revivals were the must-see events of the year
TheWrap critic Robert Hofler ranks this year's top shows -- and original productions continued to outshine revivals.
