EVER WALKED INTO a space where there is an unexpected mirror and it scares the life out of you, even though it’s just you? Life has a funny way of turning back on itself and showing you a reflection of a self that is startling. This is flawlessly captured in My Name is Lucy Barton, featuring the impeccable Julie-Anne McDowell. The work’s South African premier ends its season at Theatre on the Square in Sandton today. Another perfectly sensible reason to change your plans.

It’s a one-hander, written with a candour that will take your breath away. Lucy (McDowell) is a young mother and wife from a place called Amgash in Illinois. She’s in hospital with a viral infection. She’s alone and bored. But then her mother arrives and stays, awake and alert, with a voice like strident lines crossing out Lucy’s presence. Armed with the device of a woollen shawl, McDowell creates the hard-to-witness give and take between a tough mother and her youngest daughter.

And the issues that emerge from the woodwork of that interchange offer a gloss on a lifetime of indigence, where the family’s peers are perceived to have more. A house cold in its insultation as well as in the emotions it could or couldn’t give. And parents more focused on giving their standing in the world a level of authenticity and self-respect than on giving their children hugs and encouragement in the face of the sticks and stones and words that are hurled damagingly their way.

It’s a coming-of-age story with a difference and with several profound slaps across the face. One that replicates the terror of childhood punishment through grown up sensibilities. 

Occasionally a theatrical work sees light of day and it comes with a shimmer of value from afar. Just by the mention of its name. Is this about word getting out that it’s great? Is it about the name alone or the production pics? In any event sometimes the hype is misdirected. Sometimes it isn’t. In this case, we in Gauteng, have been hearing reverberations of Lucy Barton for months, as it has toured the country. See it today, if it is the only theatrical production you see this year.

• My Name is Lucy Bartonis written by Elizabeth Strout and adapted for stage by Rona Munro. Directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith it is performed by Julie-Anne McDowell. Produced by How Now Brown Cow, it is onstage at Theatre on the Square in Sandton on 26 October 2024, at 4pm and again at 7:30pm.