Written and Performed by
Mary Lynn Owen
Directed by
David de Vries
In the wee hours, a woman bakes bread, determined that her mother’s incomprehensible recipe will finally work. But something is different about this night. The ingredients of Time and Memory keep interfering as the bread-baking process, all in real time, becomes a journey into the messy business of baking…and of a family’s love.
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Mary Lynn Owen has long proven herself an extraordinary actor, and, with Knead, she has proven herself to be an extraordinary writer. I can't imagine the psychic scars she had to examine to create this piece, the memories she has to access to convincingly portray herself.
Atlanta Theatre Buzz, Brad Rudy
By the end of Knead, our souls are fed. It is an amazing piece of theater.
Benjamin Carr, AJC
Aurora
Theatre
Jan 25 – feb 25, 2024
Aurora Theatre (2024)
Alliance Theatre
Nov 13 – Dec 9, 2018
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world premiere
Deeply moving and transformative...a profoundly affecting experience.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wendell Brock
The experiential nature of bread-baking…its connection to intimate, familial knowledge lies at the heart of Mary Lynn Owen’s splendid, beautiful and touching new autobiographical one-woman show Knead. Knead is a stunningly intelligent and “mature” play. I would have never guessed if I hadn’t already known, that is a “first” play. It was obviously written by someone quite comfortable with structure of theatrical writing, but with a literary flair that is uniquely her own. It’s a play that’s comfortable with its sense of quiet intimacy, with its sense of a shared, lived moment of storytelling.
Ms. Owen, the playwright, has constructed a beautiful piece of theatre, strong backbone, fleshed out digressions, and compellingly intertwined humor and pathos. Mary Lynn Owen has long proven herself an extraordinary actor, and, with Knead, she has proven herself to be an extraordinary writer.
Atlanta Theatre Buzz, Brad Rudy
Ms. Owen, with determination, vulnerability, and a palpable sense of time and loved ones lost, works some potent alchemy here. She has the audience in the palm of her hand. And she is funny; there is always a joy in her bubbling just beneath the surface.
Atlanta Intown, Manning Harris
Both the script and the performance are equal parts illuminating, heartbreaking and hilarious. Just like family. A mesmerizing and haunting tour de force.
Eldredge | ATL, Richard L. Eldredge
Interviews and Articles
WABE “City Lights,” with Lois Reitzes
Alliance Theatre (2018)