The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington

(Photo credit to Johanna Austin)

Some plays are plays…and some plays are also works of art.  This can be shown through every aspect of it…the script, the sets, the costumes…and sometimes these types of shows can be found in the most bizarre places.  The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington was, to me, a play that was a mind blowing play, and also a work of art.  Every aspect of it topped the one before it, and it was presented in a show that was unlike anything I’ve ever really seen before.  It was a show with so much depth, so many angles…this could have been in a museum 

Let’s start with the basics.  Martha Washington is sick.  Very sick.  Like, deathbed sick.  Her slaves are at a loss.  When she dies, they get their freedom.  It sounds simple enough, right?  It really isn’t.  Part of the beauty of this show is that it isn’t completely obvious what’s going on.  Some of it was definitely Martha’s fever dream, as some moments were extremely absurd and could only be imagined.  This includes actors portraying lawyers, and showing a future that, of course, Martha would have no idea would be coming.  Despite the absurdity of these scenes, they’re framed so perfectly, and make sense…even though they shouldn’t.

From the start, we’re seeing a major dichotomy.  Martha Washington, the privileged, white First Lady in her bed, being tended to by a slave, and the rest of the slaves discussing her death, and what it would mean for them.  They’re even on opposite sides of the stage.  What we don’t know going in is that all the actors playing slaves are going to take on a multitude of roles to really drive different parts home.  Privilege, what’s right and what’s wrong, who deserves what, who really founded our country.  It was fascinating, especially trying to figure out what Martha grasps and what she doesn’t.

Miz Martha was not afraid to go places that were controversial.  There are things that are just not talked about very often that this play brought up.  We see various slaves and their blood relation to Martha.  We see wrongdoings that Martha has done to others.  We see wrongdoings that George Washington has done.  There are no good guys and bad guys here.  And it was done so flawlessly that I actually gasped a few times.  I was definitely not expecting to see everything I saw in this play.

The sets and costumes were extremely creative.  At first, everything just seems normal.  Martha is in her nightgown, in bed.  The slaves were plainly dressed.  But then things started warping, and we saw a whole different side to things.  A comically large version of Martha’s bed becomes the centerpiece of the stage.  There are literally stairs to get off and on the bed.  And Martha doesn’t seem to know what to do about it.  The costumes shift, too.  Betsy Ross and Abigail Adams are introduced, wearing dresses that fit their role in history…Betsy Ross in a provocative flag dress, and Abigail Adams in a peasant blouse.  It was insane, and yet, it all made sense.

Martha, as a titular character, had a very interesting journey.  Typically, when a main character goes on a journey like this, they come out drastically changed in one way or another.  Martha fought change throughout the entire play, and although she had something of a turn around at the end, I wasn’t fully convinced that she learned her lesson.  I thought this was a very interesting take, as I definitely wasn’t expecting the ending we got.  I’ve watched way too much Kitchen Nightmares to know where that one goes.

So here we are, watching Miz Martha as if it’s a performance on a wall in a museum.  The energy that this show carried was so intense.  Every actor had high energy from start to finish, even when things got a little quieter.  As I’ve said a few times already, things made so much sense in this play, even when they shouldn’t.  And it made for such an amazing, jaw dropping work of art.  I wanted to both love and hate Martha.  I wanted to both love and hate her main caretaker, Anne.  Honestly, I think William, Anne’s young son, was the only character who had a chance of coming out of this mess all right.

I walked away from Miz Martha knowing I had a lot to unpack.  This show was so much all at once, but I loved every step I took with these characters, with this show.  Has our world changed enough that I can really watch a play like this and not think that some of these things still happen?  The privilege we see in our day to day lives.  The racism that still lives throughout the world.  This play may have taken place hundreds of years ago, but in some ways, the world hasn’t changed that much.  We all need to see plays like Miz Martha to remind ourselves that we can do better.