In the title role, Shellie Shulkin is sensational. Sometimes the sensations are cold shivers. Sometimes they are shocked laughter. Whether she is being ingratiating or insulting, seductive or intimidating, Shulkin's Maggie is intense. Even when suddenly in its final minutes, Keane's play self-destructs as drama and reincarnates as sociological melodrama, Shulkin keeps her concentration as if nothing had happened.
Nothing happens in the way of transformation.
Maggie is cynical, vicious and ruthless from start to finish. In the play's final scene, Keane suddenly reverts from dialogue to monologue. Maggie explains herself as the product of horrible Irish patriarchy and Catholicism. With that, Keane goes from professional playwright to amateur pamphleteer. For some 50 years, we learn, Maggie was bullied and abused by men and by the church.