Nominated for a Berkshire Theater Award
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor – Intimate Theatre:
* Kate Baldwin in “Constellations” (Berkshire Theatre Group)
* Tara Franklin in “Sister Play” (Chester Theatre Company)
* Annie Golden in “Broadway Bounty Hunter” (Barrington Stage Company)
* Jane Kaczmarek in “And No More Shall We Part” (Williamstown Theatre Festival)
* Maddie Jo Landers in “The Taming” (Shakespeare & Company)
* Christiana Nelson in “Ugly Lies The Bone” (Shakespeare & Company)
* Debra Jo Rupp in “Kimberly Akimbo” (Barrington Stage Company)
"Williamstown deserves credit for casting disabled actors, of course, but I wouldn’t go so far as others have and say it’s crucial to do so. For one thing that would deprive Lenox theatergoers of seeing Christianna Nelson’s tough but lovely performance as an Afghanistan veteran, also named Jess, who’s come back to her Florida home terribly burned and unable to move without a walker... The meat of the play is in Jess, her family and friends trying to adjust to her broken body and spirit... Ferrentino and director Daniela Varon provide a rich emotional tapestry for their characters’ lives. And then there’s Christianna Nelson who, no matter how bitter her character is, and deserves to be, Nelson always lets you know that there’s a life force there that isn’t going to give in to that bitterness."
"In just one of many extraordinary scenes from Christianna Nelson, who plays Jess, she changes from her usual outfit, sweatpants and T-shirt, into a sundress; she's finally starting to feel human again, to however small a degree, and so she powers through the agony of donning the dress. But bending her torso is akin to torture. She says, "When the bigger (skin) grafts stretch, it feels like I'm still on fire."
"You are not built to endure," the researcher tells Jess. "You are built to recover." It's a privilege to watch her doing it."
"Jess is the central character in Lindsey Ferrentino’s mesmerizing, scalding, moving play Ugly Lies the Bone, on stage now at the Shakespeare and Company Theater in Lenox, Massachusetts. Christianna Nelson gives a powerful performance as Jess, who in return for her service to her country has been given a miserable life that only gets worse as the weeks go by... a phenomenal performance from Nelson as Jess. You can feel her physical pain as she struggles with her walker, frowning all the time, and her emotional pain as she tears old photos down from a wall. You seethe as she seethes. It is a titanic performance."
"And above all, there’s Christianna Nelson’s complex, heartrending performance as Jess, a turmoil of aching limbs and heart, every bitter sarcasm a cry of loneliness and confusion."
"This is challenging theater and well worth seeing."
- The Arts Fuse Quick Picks--Berkshire Theater Best Bets
"To the editor:
That was fun, wasn't it? The flags and fireworks, the beer and barbecues, the parades and picnics, and everybody's a patriot for a rollicking weekend. Then we fold the flags, return the empties and get our nickels back, and it's same-old time again.
Did we forget anything? Yes, we did. We forgot those who cannot forget, the men and women who fought for us and now fight for a same-old that they will never know again.
No, don't turn the page. You need to see this. We all do. Go down to Shakespeare & Company in Lenox and meet one of those people. She's Jess, the lead character in a play called "Ugly Lies the Bone." And yes, she's ugly, made up as a burn victim so expertly that a woman veteran in the audience said she could almost smell the burns.
Surprisingly, it's a funny play. A stay-at-home boyfriend says "IUD" instead of "IED;" "That's birth control," Jess snorts. And the audience guffaws. We laugh a lot, and the people at Shakespeare & Company are experts at making us do it.
We watch Christianna Nelson play Jess — no, become Jess — as she struggles to find a life that fits, now that the old one has been blown to shreds. And then we go home, knowing a lot more about the Fourth of July than we did before. It will never be same-old again."
David Robinson, Lanesborough
Ugly Lies the Bone' forces focus on veterans