By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN? Tuesday 29 September, opens 8 October and runs through 1 November 2025 RUNTIME: 90 minutes (no interval)

Oscar winner Susan Sarandon makes her London stage debut in a play which looks at a woman’s life across 7 decades and 11 scenes.

• Read on for reasons including how this is never less than totally engrossing as we see the unvarnished portrayal of a woman’s difficult life

It’s a true ensemble piece and it was actually Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough, who plays Marlowe in her 40s and 50s as her alcoholism is unravelling, that we found most mesmorising as she screams: ‘Don’t tell me how to feel’ at her unsympathetic husband.

Author Tracy Letts wrote Marlowe immediately after his mother’s death and explains in the programme: ‘The character of Mary Page does not resemble my mother, but certainly the play is infused with my grief and my longing to connect with her after her death.’

Sarandon plays Marlowe at 59, 63 and 69 and we join a woman during a meet-cute with a younger 3rd husband, during their time at home (opposite Hugh Quarshie) as we realise a punishment for a past wrong has finished and finding common ground with a nurse (a sparky Melanie La Barrie, Hadestown, Lyric Theatre) at the end of her life.

Sarandon is, as she has been throughout a career that includes roles in the Oscar-winning film Dead Man Walking and iconic Thelma And Louise and Rocky Horror Picture Show, captivating and completely inhabits her character.

Director Matthew Warchus (Oedipus, Old Vic), also this venue’s outgoing artistic director, gives us the UK premiere of a play in the round where the staging invites the audience to be more intimately involved in what we are seeing.

The storytelling is non-linear meaning we join Riseborough’s Marlowe at the breakfast table explaining to her young children that she is splitting up with their father, has a job miles away and what their living arrangements will be.

It’s only through the patchwork mosaic of piecing together the fragments of Marlowe’s life that we’re shown that like true crime podcast listeners we’re able to piece together what has happened to our unreliable protagonist.

Marlowe is a complicated woman who enjoys sex, attracts men and makes the wrong choices. Seeing her played by multiple actresses across seven decades mean we get a better understanding of how people can be a collage of their experiences and behaviour.

Sarandon has plenty of theatre experience in the US under her belt and it’s to her credit that, rather than a star vehicle, she has chosen a role for her London debut emphasising the importance of the company around her in making this a satisfying, rounded experience.

Marlowe is occasionally funny and never less than totally engrossing as we see the unvarnished portrayal of a woman’s difficult life.

• Main pictures by Manuel Harlan for Mary Page Marlowe courtesy Old Vic Tickets
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