The Grace of Mary Traverse


Collective Hysteria Presents . . .

THE GRACE OF MARY TRAVERSE
By Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Jessica Scout Malone

June 21 & 22 8:00 PM
Friends Meeting at Cambridge
5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge

Featuring:
Hannah Beebe
Annalise Cain
Annie Coursey
Emily Eldridge-Ingram
Sophie Gore
Elena Morris
Emma Palmer
Peter Walsh

Mary Traverse has never been outside. But it’s not too bad! She’s totally ready to be married off to a random lord and continue her lifetime of sitting still -- until her lifelong servant, Mrs. Temptwell, entices her with what the outside world has to offer: true experience. Mary is catapulted into an underworld of vice, sex, politics, revolution. With each new experience costing more than the last, will Mary’s newfound hunger ever be satisfied? Or will this new world swallow her whole?

Who Are We?

At the beginning of the year, a group of Boston University alumni got together in Cambridge for some coffee: Jessica Scout Malone, Annalise Cain, Emma Palmer, and Emily Eldridge-Ingram. We talked about our survival jobs, about being post-grad, about our artistry; airing our frustrations and our hopes, our ambitions and our fears. We shared our successes, but we all found ourselves in the same lot: we were all working in the theatre, but we were craving something more. We wanted to work. We wanted complex roles. We wanted messy, daring storytelling. We wanted to work with people we loved.

By the end of that hour and a half, we left with a plan: we were going to do whatever it took to produce together.

We are calling ourselves Collective Hysteria.

Originating from the Greek word for “uterus,” the term hysteria was used as a catch-all descriptor for behaviors including anxiety, insomnia, generalized anger, and outward sexual behavior exhibited by women. Thus, any female behavior that made the world uncomfortable could be branded symptoms of a disease caused by the uterus ‘wandering’ around inside of the body, and the person experiencing them sent away to be cured. If this seems outrageous and outdated to you, look to any headline on any news station and see that the government is still fighting to have this power- to decide what bodies get to be female and to decide what to do with them. As a group, we claim hysteria as a word that captures our aesthetic: bold, loud, discontented, deranged, alarming, joyous, rageful, painful, pleasurable, empowered, and visceral. In essence, subversive art made by nasty women, with or without uteruses.

What Are We Doing?

Collective Hysteria is proud to present The Grace of Mary Traverse by Timberlake Wertenbaker, in the Meeting House of Friends Meeting at Cambridge.

Based on the myth of Faust, The Grace of Mary Traverse is a parade of pleasures, vices, and taboos driven by one woman’s desire to understand nature. At one moment, Mary’s practicing how not to breathe, the next, she’s cock-fighting at the local coffeehouse. With old women races, blackmail, and revolution being served up by 8 powerhouse performers, how could you not get your money’s worth? The play premiered in 1985, but its moral backbone remains strong. It should be redundant by now, but in a moment where society at large is fighting to label and control female bodies without female permission, it still feels revolutionary to portray women who want everything. And we mean everything.

How Can You Get Involved?

Your donation will go directly to:
Artist fees (actors, stage manager, graphic designer, producers, and musicians)
Purchasing the rights to the play
Advertising materials
Costumes and props

Donating just the cost of a ticket will make you an instrumental part of bringing this exciting piece of theatre to the Boston community, and grant you free entry into either of our performances (tickets are on a sliding scale with a $10 minimum). Plus, we’ll be super grateful and post nice things about you on social media.

‘Collective hysteria’ is the term given to the phenomenon of a group of people experiencing an outbreak of the same symptoms of a non-existent condition. Is this not what happens in the theatre? We make non-existent conditions come to life when the audience and performers agree to share a space, to suspend our disbelief for a moment and leap headfirst into the unknown. It is so real, so beautiful, and so freeing to let go and be hysterical together. We’ll hope you’ll join us in this madness.