論考集

Yukari Kousaka

(本稿の筆者自身による日本語訳を、次ページに掲載している)

Women Who Care

- The Solidarity beyond the Family Framework in Mary Jane-

1、 Introduction

　　Mary Jane is a play written by Amy Herzog about a mother raising a boy with severe disabilities. Amy Herzog is an American woman playwright with an MFA in Drama from Yale University whose plays include After the Revolution, 4000 Miles, The Great God Pan, Belleville. Mary Jane had its Connecticut premiere on April 28, 2017, and was also performed in New York City on September 6 of the same year. As can be seen from what I mentioned, a unique feature of Mary Jane is the appearance of care settings in the play. In Mary Jane, women who "care" for others sometimes bond with each other more than with family members. Therefore, this article will examine the care and solidarity that these women have.

2、 Absence of men in Mary Jane

　　There are no male characters in Mary Jane and there are no cross-dressing male actors playing female roles. In other words, there is no male cast. When one hears that a play is about a family with "a child who has multiple serious illnesses, including cerebral palsy, and requires round-the-clock care," one would generally assume that the story must center on that child. In the actual Mary Jane, however, the audience does not see the child, Alex, nor do they hear his voice, which is paralyzed and unable to speak, and his presence is only suggested by the buzzing of the monitor and the sound of the suction machine. And it is already clear in Scene One of Part One that the story revolves around Mary Jane, Alex's mother.

　　The caretaker of the apartment where Mary Jane is caring for Alex is also a woman, as is the nurse and her niece. Thus, Mary Jane features only female characters played by a female cast, and the absence of male characters is intentional. Consequently, all of Alex's caretakers are women. This is in part due to the history of gender inequality in which care work, such as childcare, and nursing care, which often do not generate wages or generate small amounts of wages, have been regarded as the unique domain of women, and in fact have been carried out primarily by women.

　　In a symposium jointly presented by Yuko Ito, Shoko Ohno, Ryo Hirayama, and Chizuko Ueno(2017), they pointed out that when labor is divided into productive labor and reproductive labor, women have been responsible not only for bearing children but also for most daily reproductive labor. They also noted that these are referred to as "shadow work," that many are unpaid work, and that in addition to housework and childcare, caregiving has become a major presence in recent years.

　　In fact, Mary Jane is not paid for her work with Alex. It is widely assumed by society that this is the natural work of a mother, especially as the mother of a child with an incurable disease. The fact that Mary Jane and the nurses leave the stage each time the buzzer in Alex's room rings, in other words, their alienation from the act of performing, is a metaphor for the caregivers' alienation from the act of society.

　　The name Mary Jane also suggests her fate. Her name is composed of the name Mary, which evokes "motherhood" and "mother's love" from the Virgin Mary, and the name Jane, which evokes a meaning that no one will ever know from Jane Doe. The use of her name in the title of the play not only indicates that Mary Jane is the main character, but also represents the lives of many mothers who are expected to "be mothers" but are not rewarded or honored for it.

　　Sherry's following statement may also imply that social demand. She chose care work as a nurse that would lead to her own career, not as shadow or unpaid work.

Sherry(Paused): I have no regrets, about not having children, I focused on my career, on my friends; that was right for me. 　　　　　　 (P16)

　　The absence of men in Mary Jane, however, is not just to point out such gender differences in care work and to hold them accountable. Compared to Marsha Norman's Night mother, which also uses female casts to tell a story with only female characters, the fact that only women appear in Mary Jane is seen as a very positive thing.

Amelia:　Danny never came back?

Mary Jane:　Oh of course he did! He tried. He really did try. But he’s really…it’s hell for him, not being a part of Alex’s life. But he just can’t…(She gets lost momentarily in the memory, then redirects) I hope he finds some peace, I really do.　　　　 (P46)

　　As Mary Jane tells Amelia about her husband at the end of Part One, she is not angry about the situation of caring for Alex all by herself. On the contrary, she forgives her husband for not accepting Alex's illness and wishes him a peaceful life. Mary Jane may have known that if she was angry with her husband, her feelings would come back to her when she grew tired of caring for Alex, and above all, Amy Herzog wanted a sensitive play that did not end with a binary opposition of male and female.

　　It will also contain criticism of others who are indifferent and only interject, "You should do this," even though each family's circumstances are different. This "other" could be a metaphor for the audience, who, despite knowing only through the dialogue about her husband's situation, are willing to criticize him and to offer advice to Mary Jane. It is a criticism from the playwright Amy Herzog against the audience, which is an onlooker who only criticizes the characters. This play depicts the realities of a family that are not usually seen by audiences.

　　As mentioned above, Mary Jane is a play in which men are absent from the scene of care. Considering the history of gender differences in care and the audience as bystanders, it is very interesting that the care narrative is composed exclusively of women. The next chapter will look more deeply into why it was necessary to stage the men's absence.

3、 Solidarity among women who care

　　If Mary Jane is to be viewed as a family drama, then intra-family labor and intra-family care are considered to be important. In other words, it is the mother Mary Jane's care and devotion to her only family member, her son Alex. However, the fact that Alex's voice and figure do not appear in the play, and that the main character is set as Mary Jane, and the interaction between her and the caretaker is primarily depicted, indicate that Mary Jane is not just a family drama, but a story about women who share intra-family care beyond the family framework.

　　In Scene One, Ruthie unclogs the kitchen sink for Mary Jane, and in Scene Two, Nurse Sherry tries to counsel Mary Jane and give her a break while talking about her niece. These acts are often completed within the family, but Mary Jane, who is a single mother, has no family other than Alex. Therefore, it is assumed that the women close to Mary Jane are taking care of her as a temporary family.

　　On the other hand, there are several occasions when Mary Jane is attentive to others besides Alex, as in Scene Four, where Mary Jane gives advice to Brianne, who is in the same situation. In the scene hereafter quoted, Mary Jane is more concerned about Nurse Sherry’s Garden than she is about herself, who has not been able to sleep because of Alex's care.

Mary Jane: Hey, is your garden okay? After all that rain?

Sherry: It’s fine. I live on a slight hill. That’s nice of you to ask.

Mary Jane: I was thinking of you, that was crazy!　　　　　　　　(P19)

　　Thus, it can be considered that a pseudo-family-like solidarity is formed through the interactive care and communication between Mary Jane and the women who support her.

　　In conclusion, in Mary Jane, solidarity is formed among women who are not related to each other by blood, supporting each other in light of their respective situations. While intra-family care and intra-family labor are unpaid work, Sherry's and Ruthie's efforts in particular, although contractual and paid, are considered to be more supportive of Mary Jane than her father Danny, who ran away and is no longer with the family. If so, Mary Jane is a "family drama" in the sense that it rethinks the nature of care within and outside the family, but without the family appearing.

4、 Conclusion

　　This article discussed solidarity based on "care" among women in the play Mary Jane, citing mainly dialogue from Part One. The reason why the depiction of the care setting continues without men in this stage is not necessarily to pursue the current situation of gender differences in care work, but to depict a "Sisterhood" of women supporting one mother beyond the family framework, with particular emphasis on the natural conversation and emotional movement among the women in their interactions. Therefore, although Mary Jane's situation is very difficult compared to other "families," it is consistently upbeat. Mary Jane's struck strength could also be described as the resilience that comes from the Sisterhood.

　　In recent years, more and more American plays, such as Marcia Norman's ‘Night Mother and Amy Herzog Mary Jane, have featured women in the lead roles or have been all-female. As a feminism in which female characters, whose voices have been given false voices by male playwrights and male dramatists, reclaim their true voices, this is a movement that deserves attention. Although only Mary Jane was discussed in this article, it would be meaningful to compare and contrast several works in which only women appear. This is an issue I would like to address in the future.

5、 References

Herzog, Amy. Mary Jane. TCG, 2018.

Als, Hilton. “Amy Herzog’s ‘Mary Jane,’ a Dream of Family Gone Wrong.” The New Yorker, 29 Sept. 2017, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/amy-herzogs-mary-jane-a-dream-of-family-gone-wrong.

伊藤裕子, et al. “ケア役割を問う -男性がケアに関わるとき‐.” 研究委員会企画シンポジウム2, 2017, p. 1.

Green, Jesse. “Review: In ‘Mary Jane,’ a Young Mother Faces Her Worst Fears.” The New York Times, 25 Sept. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/theater/mary-jane-review.html.