A Plague of Angels Reviewed by Younger Son

A Plague of Angels

On November 10, 2006 I saw A Plague of Angels at Trinity University College

Genre: Based on a true story.

Setting: Small cottage on North Brother Island, New York. Property of Riverside
Hospital. July 1909- February 1910. Epilogue: December 1938.

This is the story about Mary Mallon, also known as “ Typhoid Mary. Mary was an immigrant from Ireland who came to America in the early 1900’s. Mary was a healthy carrier of Typhoid fever. Mary was a cook for many wealthy people. The families that Mary cooked for became ill and some of them died.

Mary was quarantined for 2 years in the hospital. These two years is what the play is about. Mary was very angry that she was at the hospital against her will. Mary did not believe in germs and did not believe what the doctors said. The doctors agreed that Mary could be released if she would take pills and shots for two weeks, come back once a week for more shots, and never cook for other people. She agreed.

In the epilogue we found out that Mary never came back to the hospital for the shots. She started cooking again for restaurants and people started to get ill and die. The police finally tracked her down by the people that where dying. Mary spent the rest of her life in seclusion on the island until 38 years later when she died of a stroke.

The theatre that we saw this play in was very small. It could seat 62 people. The stage area was right next to the audience. They had no curtain and no backstage. There were only 6 characters in this play.

*** I give this play 3 out of 5 stars.

I did not like this play as much as the others I have seen, because this play was a very sad and depressing. I thought the acting was very good. My favorite character was Father McKuen, (the priest that came to see Mary at the hospital many times). If I was in this play I would like to play Father McKuen. I don’t recommend anyone under the age 12. I was the only kid there, all the rest were adults.

For more information on Typhoid Mary you can go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/
A documentary entitled "The Most Dangerous Women in America is being produced by PBS.