Collected Stories, written by Donald Margulies, is about the relationship between a graduate creative writing student, Lisa (Maggie Mularz), and her renowned professor, Ruth (Roxanne Fay). Over the course of six years, we watch them evolve from student and mentor to friends and colleagues. Along the way, lines are blurred, crossed, italicized, returned to normal, and, perhaps, erased for good…
Fay, Mularz, and director Matthew Ray transform six years of soliloquies and intertextual references into an honest conversation about what it means to be a writer. The show is full of interesting only-a-writer-would-notice-that details. When Lisa first visits her professor’s apartment to discuss a draft, Ruth admits she’d expected a moodier student, one who doesn’t make eye contact and looks like she “trims her own bangs by chewing them off.” From Ruth's experience, students usually match their stories. Instead Lisa is gushy and ebullient. I personally have never met a graduate student so peppy, but I guess college cost less in the ’90s. Mularz is a reliable contrast to Fay’s regal and intense Ruth.
It’s hard to tell whether Roxanne Fay was made for this part or this part was made for Roxanne Fay. She expertly delivers both the funniest and the harshest lines of the show. In two hours we watch her descent and, simultaneously, Lisa’s rise. It’s sort of All About Eve, but instead of Margo critiquing Eve’s acting, it’s Ruth being like “Whoa, too many adverbs.”
Collected Stories is a must-see for students, teachers, literary folk of all kinds, anyone who wants to see Roxanne Fay being talented and great, Maggie Mularz doing likewise, and anyone who has aspirations or fears inadequacy. If you think you do not fall into any of these categories, you are either sad or mistaken.
Your last chance to see Collected Stories is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Jobsite.
This article appears in May 18-25, 2017.