The curious career of typhoid mary

THE CURIOUS CAREER OF TYPHOID MARY 

(A musical feast in two Acts.) 

ACT 1 - Belfast 1899. A run-down tenement house. Mary Mallon nervously awaits the arrival of her drunken, brutish husband Sean. She soothes her mewling baby Rose with dreams of escape and a better life (Fantasy, Fantasy ). Sean, full of beer and bile staggers in. Inflamed with drink he pins Mary to the table, tearing at her clothes before finally passing out cold on the floor. Seizing the moment, Mary packs a bag, grabs her baby and runs. 

Early 1900’s. A ship teeming with immigrants slips into New York Harbour. As it glides past the Statue of Liberty the weary passengers rhapsodise about their hopes for a better future (Immigrants’ Chorus). Amongst the throng are Mary and her baby. A doctor sent to examine the new arrivals, finds Rose has died during the journey. Bereft, Mary disappears into the swirling crowd, lamenting the price she’s had to pay for her Liberty, Liberty.

Now alone, Mary roams the bustling streets of New York. Standing in the sewers directly below is George Soper, sanitary engineer, with his friend and long-suffering colleague Raymond Hoobler. George explains to Ray that the Principles and Rules used to maintain a healthy and efficient sewage system can be seen as a direct metaphor for the health and moral integrity of the populace above. In the street above Mary is approached by Mr Johannsen, a debauched industrialist, who promptly offers her money for sex. Another man, Theodore Deeks, rushes to help her. He soon puts Mary at ease with his genuine good humour and kindness. Six weeks later Mary and Theo are living together in a rundown tenement. Mary, now cook for the well to do Bannister family, returns home to Theo to be told they are being evicted, as the tenement is being razed to the ground due to an outbreak of typhoid. As their neighbours, all first-generation migrants, pack their few belongings to leave the tenement, they bemoan This is Not My Home. Theo reassures a worried Mary, telling her as long as they are together his Heart is Home.

George supervises the burning down of the tenement. He is joined by Ray and Ray’s ‘friend’ Dr Sarah Parkes. George is quickly taken by this intelligent, straight-talking woman as she explains to him the latest research about healthy Typhoid carriers who show no symptoms themselves. Mary is at work at the Bannisters. Cooking is when she feels happiest, pursuing her Recipe for Life. Back at their office George and Ray are desperately Sleuthing, trying to track down the source of a series of mysterious Typhoid outbreaks. Ray ultimately discovers that the link is the cook, Marry Mallon. Back in the kitchen Mary has just fought off the amorous advances of Mr Bannister. Shaken and angry Mary invokes her repressed rage by cooking up a Recipe Revenge for all the men that have wronged her. It is at this moment that George bursts in accusing Mary of being a potential Typhoid carrier whose “excretions” need to be examined. Furious, Mary chases him out with a carving fork. Shaken, George visits Sarah to talk through what happened. He believes Mary is insane, too ignorant to accept the undeniable science. Sarah suggests that George try and see it from Mary’s point of view, that although his convictions might be Right the manner of his approach was not. Sarah volunteers to speak to Mary herself, which George forbids.

Later, Sarah is visited by Ray who tries to work up the courage to invite her to the opera. She accepts Ray’s invitation leaving him to hope that Love Me She Might. Theo organises a meeting with George to discuss the situation, much to Mary’s displeasure. Theo assures her he will always keep her safe no matter what the future may bring. George promptly arrives and bluntly accuses Mary of being ignorant and a menace to society and threatening that if she doesn’t cooperate “then My Hands Are Tied” and he will report her to the police. Furious, Mary goes into a tirade and George and Ray quickly retreat. Theo decides they should pack up their things and leave. Later, as Mary packs her meagre belongings, Sarah arrives, without George’s knowledge, in the hope of reasoning with Mary. Just as she’s gaining Mary’s trust George bursts in with the police to undertake The Arrest. Mary is carried kicking and screaming to jail.

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ACT 2 – Mary is locked away until the authorities can decide what to do with her. Theo hires lawyer, G.F. O’Neil to sue the City for unlawful arrest. During the sensational court case Mary sits in her cell, content to contemplate her fate at the hands of a society she has come to despise Four Walls and Other People. Mary is devastated when she loses the case, but the wily Lover of Words O’Neil suggests that if she ‘tells’ the authorities she’ll give up cooking, they will release her. Mary agrees and is released. To celebrate, Mary and Theo treat themselves to a night at a Vaudeville Show. Theo is keen to start afresh in San Francisco but Mary stubbornly refuses to leave. Vaudeville star J.J. O’Hare is introduced and launches into a parody song My Name’s Mary about the monstrous Angel of Death, Typhoid Mary. 

Horrified, Mary flees the music hall and finds herself standing outside a local cemetery. Peering at the faded headstones Mary laments the loss of her baby Rose and all of the other Little Children Lost. Theo finds her there and promises they will stay in New York. Mary quickly changes her name, moving from one employer to the next until she ends up as cook at a boarding house for men. It’s not long before several of the residents fall ill and Die Happy . She moves on and becomes head cook at Sloane’s Maternity Hospital. It’s not long before several of the residents fall ill and die there as well.

With Mary gone, George locks himself away, burying himself in his work. Worried about his friend, Ray pays a visit and reminds George about Sarah’s birthday party that night. At the party both men produce rings and propose to Sarah. Sarah, shocked, flattered and bewildered, considers Do I Say ‘I Do’?, weighing up the pros and cons of each suitor. In the end she rejects them both.

A disconsolate George becomes obsessed with writing a book about Mary. Out of the blue he is visited by an ailing Theo, who asks George to stop hounding Mary. George refuses. Theo insinuates that George is perversely excited by his relentless pursuit of Mary. Theo leaves. Shaken, George begins to question the personal sacrifices he’s made in building a career over so many years when he had No Doubt at all. Mary secures a position in the Drayton household, becoming very close to their daughter, Emma, who soon succumbs to typhoid and dies. Mary is devastated. By the time she returns home she has decided to give up cooking and follow Theo’s advice and leave New York. Mary discovers Theo has died in his sleep. Numb with grief, Mary realises she can no longer go on without him, because he was Half of Me. Bereft and angry, Mary confronts George in his home and accuses him of ruining her life. George denies it and asks her to collaborate on the book he’s writing about her. Mary says he will never be able to tell her story because he can’t see her as a real person, that she is invisible to him. As the police escort Mary out, George, finally realising the futility of his task, destroys the manuscript. 

Mary is kept in a bungalow on North Brother Island for the next 23 years. Stubbornly refusing to admit any guilt to George and the authorities, Mary instead stays silent, which greatly encourages the tabloid loving public who crave only her silence to affirm their image of her as a monster (Say Something Mary!/Don’t Say a Word!). The only thing she will cheerfully admit to when asked is this – “I was never sick a day in me life!”