“Typhoid Mary” has become a term used to describe someone who spreads illness. What some people don’t realize is that there was a real Mary who spread typhoid fever — she didn’t have any symptoms of the disease, but unwittingly infected dozens of people from 1900 to about 1915. Mary Mallon, an immigrant from Ireland, was a cook for well-to-do families in New York. It seemed everywhere she worked, the families would be stricken with typhoid within a few weeks of her starting employment. Typhoid researcher George Soper tracked Mary down, realized she was the source of the disease, but had no proof. Mary refused to give him urine and stool samples, saying she was perfectly healthy and couldn’t possibly be responsible. The New York City Health Department sent Dr. Sara Baker to talk to Mallon, and the woman fled, believing she was being persecuted by the authorities. Finally caught, she was sent to North Brother Island, where she lived in quarantine for three years. Released on the promise she would not cook again for anyone, Mallon soon had to break the promise in order to survive, changing her name and landing a job at a women’s hospital. There, she infected a number of patients, was caught again and sentenced to quarantine. Mallon lived the remainder of her life on the island, convinced she was not a carrier of the dread disease, dying in 1938 of pneumonia.
Tom Horan’s play, Typhoid Mary, premiered at the Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis on the Frank and Katrina Basile Stage. Directed by Bill Simmons, the show stars Lauren Briggeman as Mary, Ben Asaykwee as George Soper, and Jolene Moffatt as Dr. Sara Baker. Asaykwee and Moffatt play auxilliary characters as well — a hapless cop and the Virgin Mary, among others — and all three are disguised as ravens passing the sentence of quarantine on poor Mallon. Briggeman’s Mary is pious, pronouncing her innocence and purity at every opportunity, and also quite profane when cornered. Asaykwee’s uptight and clueless Soper begins his relationship with Mary as an adversary, but it evolves into a more sympathetic and understanding one by the end of the play. Moffatt plays the defensive doctor with a mixture of compassion and humor.
Typhoid Mary brings up issues that are still alive today — during the Ebola scare, in particular. When faced with a potential epidemic, how do we treat those afflicted? Are the poor and powerless more likely to be demonized as carriers? Is health a sign of moral and spiritual “purity”? These themes are expertly explored in this provocative production.
The Phoenix Theatre is located at 749 N. Park Ave. Tickets are $27 per person on Thursdays and Sundays, $33 per person on Fridays and Saturdays, and $20 for anyone 21 & under. Tickets for Typhoid Mary may be purchased by calling the box office at 317-635-7529 or visiting phoenixtheatre.org. Curtain times for the production are: Thursdays – 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays – 8 p.m.; Sundays – 2 p.m. now through May 24th.
