The Testament of Mary

I TELL THE TRUTH, NOT BECAUSE IT WILL CHANGE NIGHT INTO DAY. THE TRUTH MUST BE SPOKEN ONCE IN THE WORLD. I SPEAK SIMPLY BECAUSE I MUST.

Years after the crucifixion, young men are hounding the mother of Jesus. The disciples want her to endorse the story they are constructing about her son—stories of a man who performed miracles and rose from the dead.

They say her son is the son of God.

She says it is all a lie.

Rejected by the authors of the Gospel, Mary tells the story that no one wants to write. This Mary is unrecognisable from the meek, obedient woman of scripture, painting and sculpture. She is angry, sharp-witted and dares to speak a dangerous truth. She is a mother who could not save her son from fanaticism and manipulation, who could not save him from his death upon the cross.

Pamela Rabe returns to Malthouse Theatre to give a voice to one of the world’s greatest and most silenced icons in a soaring production that unpicks the stories at the foundation of Western religion. Mary invites the audience to join in her defiance, to examine how myths are made, and to question who has the power to tell them.