[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of The Island Queen: Part III of Love on the Other Side of Death, written and performed by Mary Guillermin, developed with and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, and part of the Soaring Solo Stars Series.
This is the third instalment in Mary Guillermin’s Love on the Other Side of Death series of solo plays. They all center around the death of her son Michael whom she met as a 35-year-old man later in her life and bonded with instantly. He was an unexpected addition to her world and brought with him all the wonder, love, struggles and revelations of any child. Only this one was a grown man with his own journey and his own history.
Mary Guillermin is absolutely unique. She is a gifted storyteller, a warm and deeply spiritual person who frequently converses with the fairy realm and is so utterly fascinating that really everything she shares is both enchanting and exquisitely honest. Her love for Michael was almost instantaneous when they met. He arrived on her doorstep as an Airbnb patron and never left. He himself was a highly gifted man. He developed and created digital platforms and apps and found a much-deserved and needed solace in Mary and her home.
His passing from a terrible asthma attack was shocking and devastating for Mary. She has found some healing in her stories and her connections to past lives. With only two short years with Michael before he died, Mary looked for answers. She found them in past lives and a mother Island Queen from thousands of years ago with her own loss of her warrior son. The unmistakable connection she has with these two long-dead and very real historical figures has not only helped her find peace, but it has given her a new sense of symmetry and belonging.
How can we know why our lives turn and unfold the way they do? How can we curse fate if our lives are already written or if they have already been lived? Sitting in a small dark theatre with Mary and many of her friends and extended family who know her and listening to this story of love and redemption told by a wise and enthralling woman with an ancient spirit gave me healing, too. We have all lost people we love and many of us far too soon. To feel they are ahead of us waiting rather than lost and far behind us gives so much comfort and this is what I think Mary’s story tells us. Love and lives repeat. We are always drawn to the souls we already know and what is lost will be with us once again. We must only wait and live on and try to understand.
Mary’s gift is that of storytelling and an openness to the universe that few of us can hope for. She is a marvel, and her plays are precious and profound. If this is her final chapter, then it certainly feels complete. Bravo, Mary, and thank you for sharing your world with us.
Mary Guillermin is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as a playwright and collage artist. She uses her own unique Sacred Archetypes Collage cards to give spiritual guidance. She is also the editor and lead writer of an award-winning book, John Guillermin: The Man, The Myth, The Movies, available on Amazon.
Follow Mary and her upcoming projects.
Editor and co-author of John Guillermin: The Man, The Myth, The Movies
Bronze medal winner 2022 IPPY Independent Publishing Book Awards
Bronze medal winner 2022 Living Now Publishing Book Awards
Advocate for mental health recovery.
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