Susan Granger’s review of “My Name Is Lucy Barton” (Samuel J. Friedman Theater/Manhattan Theatre Club)
Told in monologue, this is a memory play, set at a time when Lucy Barton (Laura Linney) was seriously ill and confined for nine weeks in a New York hospital as complications arise after what was supposed to be a routine appendectomy.
When she awakens, middle-aged Lucy finds her long-estranged mother ensconced at her bedside, straight from rural Amgash, Illinois, relating gossipy stories in a flat Midwestern accent.
Seamlessly, Linney switches from Lucy, who is now married with two daughters of her own, to her embittered mother.
Lucy’s unhappy childhood was filled with deprivation and hardship; supper was often molasses on bread. Her father punished her by locking her in his pickup truck with “a really long brown snake.” The emotional scars of his abuse and her mother’s ineffectual response remain raw.
Lonely Lucy found refuge in books. She secretly thought that, if she could write, it would open the world to her: “I knew I was a writer.”
Now, Lucy has great empathy for victims, particularly the men suffering from AIDS who live in her West Village neighborhood and for her doctor’s relatives who were killed in the Holocaust.
Literally adapted for the stage by Rona Munro from Elizabeth Stout’s best-selling 2016 novel, it’s deftly directed by Richard Eyre with lighting and costumes by Bob Crowley, lighting by Peter Mumford and video projections of cornfields, a ramshackle farm house and the iconic Chrysler building that serve as backdrops by Luke Halls.
Often described as “luminous,” Laura Linney is a consummately controlled stage actress. Her embodiment of Lucy feels equally personal and universal in its searing intensity and its brilliant willingness to entertain.
Most recently, Linney was nominated for a Tony for her performance in the 2017 revival of “The Little Foxes.” Before that, she was nominated for her role in the 2002 Broadway revival of “The Crucible” and in two plays by Donald Margulies, “Sight Unseen” and “Time Stands Still.” And she’s currently starring in the new season of “Ozark” on Netflix.
If you cannot get into Manhattan to see this 90-minute solo production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street, it’s been recorded by Penguin Random House Audio.