********  The Typhoid Marys ********           

Writer/director Phil Tong and his talented young cast bring to life 
the tragic story of women who, at the beginning of the twentieth century, were isolated 
for being typhoid carriers.  Ethereal, ghostly dancers imprisoned in a 
psychiatric hospital are gradually given a voice and a history. The most detailed backstory is that of Mary Mallon, represented as a brave, fierce woman who, determined to make 
the best of her life, emigrated from Ireland to America, where out of the blue she was
"arrested" and institutionalised for being "poisonous".

The story, which can perhaps be summed up in the lines "I'm not a 
criminal" "That may be the case but it'll make little difference to what'll happen to you now", is a difficult one. The  women depicted were healthy, law abiding and forcibly taken against 
their will. Moreover, the very concept of a healthy carrier, someone 
who was healthy who could infect others, was new, and must have been a 
confusing and disturbing idea. This is possibly the most terrifying aspect of this awful episode: the women were completely unsuspecting of any problems and were taken abruptly and irreversibly. 
There are also deep veins of prejudice; mostly class but also more 
than a hint of gender. On the other side of the Atlantic, the American 
response to the problem, albeit very harsh, was portrayed as being 
rather more sympathetic than the British.

While intensely sad, this is not a relentless play. In addition to the 
poignant dance scenes interwoven with the story, Tong's portrayal of the
parliamentarians of the time provides us with some much needed lighter 
moments.

Tong wisely avoids oversimplifying the picture, portraying
often-sympathetic figures and raising many questions. I learnt a lot,
while leaving wanting to know more. Could men carry typhoid? Were male 
carriers (typhoid Gerrys?) treated differently? How many carriers were there? Why was the original Mary  so famous? Perhaps most importantly, given what was known at the time, 
what should have been done, and how would we respond to a similar situation today?

This thought-provoking story needs to be told, and Tong and his 
excellent team and cast do a superb job

Note: the theatre gets hot -- wear layers and take water.

Alison Pease