MARIOLOGY at Boston Court Pasadena Unpacks the Virgin Mary’s Role in Gender and Power

THEATRE REVIEW

Amir Levi, Valerie Spencer, Russell Edge, Fran DeLeon, Gabriela Bonet (Photo – Brian Hashimoto)

In 1973, when Nancy Keystone’s MARIOLOGY begins, if you had asked a humanities professor about the greatest significance of the Virgin Mary, the most common response would likely be that Mary elevated the status of women in the mostly Western countries whose religions revered her.

By Marilyn Fuss

Pose the same question to the fifth-graders onstage at Holy Virgin School, and after countless litanies of Mary’s holy attributes, one of them might say that all she gave them was everything, a god in herself.

Of course, to the pre-teens, what matters most is that virginity. The writer-director’s mission “explores the Virgin Mary both as a source of faith and a weapon of control, illuminating Mary’s roles in systems of gender, power, and personal agency.” MARIOLOGY begins this exploration with six female students portrayed by three grown men and three women in school uniforms. Their costumes and body language are spot-on, and they never slip into slapstick.

In one all-encompassing act, the audience follows the path of the classroom’s daily rote, alongside the students’ activities, imaginings, and fears, in a world where spirituality is constantly infused with expectations of perfection in themselves and those around them: the standard is always the paragon of the untainted woman who gives birth to a human child who then transfigures into God. The experiences are presented in an expressionistic, even surreal, manner. Through onstage angels and higher beings (both literally and figuratively), scenes from the life of Jesus, and nightmarish, sometimes sexual enactments, we are made to witness how these young people are constantly comparing themselves to an ideal in Mary; a model that is as likely to impede as it is to encourage.

Mariology
By Nancy Keystone
Nov. 5 – Dec 7, 2025
Cast: Amir Levi, Fran de Leon, Gabriela Bonet, Lorne Green, Russell Edge, Valerie Spencer
Boston Court Pasadena
70 N. Mentor Ave
Pasadena, CA 91106
Tickets: bostoncourtpasadena.org.

Gabriela Bonet in Mariology at Boston Court Pasadena (Photo – Brian Hashimoto)