What is the Matter with Mary Jane? by Wendy Harmer

Disorders Victoria (EDV): www.eatingdisorders.org.au
    QLD: Eating Disorders Association Inc Queensland: www.eda.org.au ; Isis The Eating Issues Centre: www.isis.org.au
    WA: Women’s Health Works: www.womenshealthworks.org.au
    SA: Centacare: (PACE) www.centacare.org.au/OurServices/HealthWellbeing/PACE.aspx# ; Eating Disorders Association of South Australia (EDASA): www.edasa.org.au
    TAS: www.arafmitas.org.au
    NT: Top End Mental Health Services (TEMHS): www.health.nt.gov.au
    This information is from the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) website: www.nedc.com.au

Reviews
    The Scotsman, Edinburgh UK - 5 stars out of 5.
    If you have never thrown up in a toilet you may not recognise Sancia Robinson’s trembling arms as she mimes chucking up the contents of her fridge as a sign she has been here before. As indeed she has. What is the Matter with Mary Jane? is the story of her own 12 year battle with anorexia and bulimia nervosa and even though it is grim stuff, it is never unbearable. The frank humour that has allowed Robinson to perform this at all keeps us laughing at sketches, including one called ‘Binging with Sance’ and ‘A Day in the Life of a Super Model.’
    The laughing of course is when we’re not in despair that adolescent girls, encouraged by their envious friends will devote all their energies to controlling a body they loathe so much they want it to disappear. ‘There’s nobody here! There’s nobody here!’ shrieks Robinson, hiding amid the debris of her latest binge as her mother walks in. Shows like this, written with teenagers in mind, may well stop those words coming true.
    Kill to get a ticket.
    The Sydney Morning Herald
    The central motif of the show is control. A pimply confused adolescent, lacking in self-esteem and confidence possesses one arena over which she has absolute control, her body. It’s a searingly honest piece and if this piece can help spare others the hell Robinson and Harmer entertainingly show us, then it’s a very worthwhile exercise.
    The Guardian, UK
    In this one-woman show Australian actress Sancia Robinson tells the true story of her descent from a healthy eight and a half stone 16 year old to a hospitalised five stone anorexic. Depressing though it is, it is lifted way above that average self-revelatory monologue by an engaging and powerful performance and the much-needed wit and panache of writer-director Wendy Harmer.
    Like many little girls Sancia wanted to grow up to be a princess, and she saw being thin as the key to this glamorous lifestyle. ‘How was I to know they were all a bunch of co-dependant neurotics with poor self esteem and eating disorders?’ She soon finds herself full of laxatives, on the loo, reading Supermodel . And so begin the lies, excuses, and self-justifications of an anorexic in denial.
    This show is certainly not for the squeamish, but it’s a frank and valuable analysis of the psychology of an anorexic and thankfully, as Sancia’s impressively detached performance testifies, there is a tentatively happy ending, though she’s still taking it a meal at a time. The mostly female audience clapped for an encore, but she declined.
    Sydney Sun Herald
    Here is a production that has a powerful and urgent message for teenagers. This is one story that must be told. Robinson and Harmer are the women to tell it. With intelligence, veracity and to boot, all the excitement of the theatre.
    HIT LIST pick of the week—from The Edinburgh List
    What is the Matter with Mary Jane? Self doubt, self-loathing and self-abuse answers that one. This is a powerful tale of one woman’s battle against the 20th century scourges of anorexia and bulimia. Challenging and informative without being worthy

Playwrights’ Biographies
    WENDY HARMER is one of Australia’s best known comedians. She is a veteran of the Edinburgh, Montreal and Glasgow festivals and has worked extensively in London,