The play is rife with potential for controversy among Catholics, for whom Mary is a sacred figure. In Testament, Mary witnesses the crucifixion, but is whisked away to safety along with the other disciples before they can see her son's final hours. Biblical depictions of the crucifixion conflict, with only John mentioning that Mary was there. McKenna commands the stage for 80 minutes without a break, telling the story of Jesus from the perspective of his mother, without ever using his name, and how she watched him become a spiritual leader, how she became estranged from him, watched him crucified, and then had to live in captivity, in the ancient city of Ephesus, with the guilt of not having stayed with her son as he died. Paller and Perloff's version is more stripped down than the one on Broadway, with less set and fewer props, and starring Canadian actor Seana McKenna last seen in A.C.T.'s productions of Napoli! and Phedre. The company workshopped their new version, and the result is Testament, playing at the Geary Theater through November 23. decided to take it on, Toibin told Perloff to use whichever version she wanted, and what resulted is an amalgam of all three one-woman pieces, as compiled by Paller, which Perloff jokingly refers to as The Gospel According to Michael. The Testament of Mary premiered in New York in 2013 starring British actress Fiona Shaw, however it was based on a dramatic monologue Toibin wrote in 2011 for the Dublin Theatre Festival called Testament, which he later made into a bestselling novelization, The Testament of Mary, in 2012. artistic director Carey Perloff and resident dramaturg Michael Paller take the various versions of his story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and do whatever they wanted with it. Following lackluster reviews on Broadway, Irish author Colm Toibin was glad to let A.C.T.
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