Theatre Review: Marvin’s Room Shows Life Is Unfair….. So What Are You Going To Do About It?

Marvin’s Room is a brilliant play because it is frustrating. It is not the play you go to for a happy or sad ending, nor is it a tale of resolution or solid hope. Instead, this Roundabout Theatre production is like, a moving photo of a family’s darkest times.

There are moments when we wish we could tell Life, itself, “Hey, can you leave me alone for awhile. I think you have been too mean!”. This thought, definitely, crossed my mind as I watched the Lily Taylor’s Bessie. The sweet, soft-spoken, and devotedly loving character is so brazenly good. Taylor present Bessie like the rarest human being you will ever find: pure grace. Hence, you grow instantly protective of her, and wish you could pray away all her cancer away. She has dedicated her life to taking care of other, and her nobility does well to contrast that of Janeane Garofolo’s hilarious, selfish, and fractured Lee. Garofolo is so deliciously sardonic as Lee, and delivers writer Scott McPherson’s wit with a sarcastic, honorable punch. She is dryly funny, which makes you watch her to see what she will say next. It is in this magnetism that Garofolo uses subtly to display Lee as a woman “over her head”. She is not exactly known for making the best choices in life, men, and, unfortunately, for her son, Hank. Jack DiFalco presents Hank like a broken light; if he ever shined, it was a long time ago. This approach to a 17 year old character, with a history of mental break-downs, tears the audience with a feeling that no one this young should be so trapped, drugged, and labeled. He is a social “pariah” that only Bessie seems to see as a lost boy. Taylor and DiFalco’s chemistry is so tender I wish there were more scenes and conversations between their characters. They are two persons that have never been cherished enough for their worth, but while Bessie chooses to respond to disregard with love, Hank chooses to burn houses down.

It is hard to review Marvin’s Room because it is such a particular play. For two hours, not including a 15 minute intermission, you are simply walking through the lives of women that are trying to play their best with the worst “cards”/ situations. Bessie’s cancer, Lee’s economy and struggling children, and Ruth’s chronic back pain/ garage door dilemma. Celia Watson as Ruth gains huge laughs, and is another character that feels too sweet to be real. For better or worse, every character feels like a good human being struggling to stay spiritually and mentally afloat amongst life’s cruelest challenges. From mental to physical health issues, Marvin’s Room is a clear display that health is not a joke, choice, or a side-effect of moral deficiency. From the loving Marvin, whose never seen but mentioned, to the incredibly kind Ruth and Bessie, these are people that are the greatest souls with the sickest bodies. Director Anne Kaufman does well to show nobody deserves their “problems”, but it still does not mean you do not have to deal with them. This emotional take is refreshing to both the play’s already amazing script and the audience. We all need to hear, “It is not our fault”, but we also need to hear, “You still need to be apart of the solution”. As each character, tries to figure out how to deal with life, the set from Laura Jellinek dynamically moves and shapes Marvin’s Room to be one we can all fit in. For More Information On Marvin’s Room And To Buy Tickets Until Its August 27 Run Click Here.

AMERICAN AIRLINES THEATRE 227 West 42nd Street, New York, NY, 10036