From the playwright of Mary & Myra
Performances October 28 – November 12
From the playwright –
When I first heard that Mary Todd Lincoln was sent to an insane asylum in 1875 by her only living son, Robert, and America’s first woman lawyer, Myra Bradwell, came to her aid I couldn’t believe that this had remained a secret of history. I knew what I assumed the average person knew about Mary Todd Lincoln, and I knew nothing about Myra Bradwell. I did however know a bit about “the vast territory” which is “sanity,” as Mary says to Myra in the play, “With its tallest of mountains and lowest of caves…” and I set out to answer this single question: How did I feel about Mary Todd Lincoln, and why an asylum? In many ways my play MARY AND MYRA is the embodiment of what has burrowed deep in my heart for Mary as I learned more about her. It was only because of this discovery of love that I decided to tell this true story. But I must add that my play is not realistic as much as it is the poetic essence of Mary and her confinement at Bellevue Place.
