Marina Carr

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By the Bog of Cats at Wyndhams Theatre, London in 2005

Marina Carr (born 17 November 1964) is a prolific Irish playwright. She has written almost thirty plays, including By the Bog of Cats (1998) which was revived at the Abbey Theatre in 2014.

Early life and education[]

Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland but she spent the majority of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly, located adjacent to the town of Tullamore. Carr grew up in a house filled with writing, painting and music. Her father, Hugh Carr, was a playwright and studied music under Frederick May, while her mother, Maura Eibhlín Breathnach, was the principal of the local school and wrote poetry in Irish, and it was said that "there was a lot of literary rivalry."^[3] As a child, Carr and her siblings built a theatre in their shed, "we lay boards across the stacked turf, hung an old blue sheet for a curtain and tied a bicycle lamp to a rafter".^[4] Carr recalls, "it was serious stuff, we even had a shop and invited all the local kids in; the plays were very violent!"^[3]

Carr attended University College Dublin, studying English and philosophy. She graduated in 1987, and subsequently^[when?] received an honorary degree of Doctorate of Literature from her alma mater.

Career[]

She has held posts as writer-in-residence at the Abbey Theatre, and she has taught at Trinity College Dublin, Princeton University, and Villanova University. She lectured in the English department at Dublin City University in 2016.^[5] Marina Carr is considered one of Ireland's most prominent playwrights and is a member of Aosdána.^[6] Her works have been translated into many languages, and have received much critical acclaim.

Awards[]

Carr's work has received numerous awards. The Mai won the Dublin Theatre Festival Best New Irish Play award (1994-1995) and Portia Coughlan won the nineteenth Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1996-1997). Other awards include The Irish Times Playwright award 1998, the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American/Ireland Fund Award, the Macaulay Fellowship and the Hennessy Award. Carr has been named a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize, administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.^[7][8] The award, which includes a financial prize of $165,000 (or €155,000), was formally presented in September 2017.^[7] She was the second Irish author to receive the prize, following playwright Abbie Spallen in 2016.^[7]

Theatrical works[]

Publications[]

• The Mai. London: Dufour Editions, 1995.
• By the Bog of Cats. The Abbey, Dublin, and Wyndham's Theater, London. 1998
• Plays One. London: Faber and Faber, 1999.^[4]
• On Raftery's Hill. London: Faber and Faber, 2000.
• Ariel. Oldcastle, Co. Meath: Gallery Books, 2002.
• Woman and Scarecrow. London: Faber and Faber, 2006
• Marble. Oldcastle, Co. Meath: Gallery Books, 2009
• Plays Two. London: Faber and Faber, 2009
• 16 Possible Glimpses. The Abbey Theatre, 2011
• Plays Three. London: Faber and Faber, 2015
• 1 in 5. Roe Valley Hospital, 2011^[13]

By the Bog of Cats...[]

The original production of By the Bog of Cats took place at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. The play opened on 7 October 1998, and ran until 14 November 1998. The production, totaling 45 performances, was directed by Patrick Mason and designed by Monica Frawley. Other members of the production team included Nick Chelton, lighting designer and Dave Nolan on sound. The lead roles were played by Siobhán Cullen (Josie Kilbride), Olwen Fouéré (Hester Swane), and Conor McDermottroe (Carthage Kilbride). Other characters such as Catwoman were played by Joan O’Hara, Carline Cassidy played by Flonnuala Murphy and Xavier Cassidy by Tom Hickey.^[14]

Irish writer Frank McGuinness wrote the programme note of the Abbey production of By the Bog of Cats... in 1998. His description of the play analyses Carr's style of writing, which he likens to Greek writing:

By the Bog of Cats... is a play about sorrow. Therefore it must be funny. A play about death, so a wedding shall be at the centre of it. A play about saying the things that need to be said, so there will be silence at the end of it. A play about hatred, so love is at its heart. A play whose philosophy is that Carthage must be destroyed, but what happens to the destroyers? This is what By the Bog of Cats... tells us.

— Frank McGuinness, By the Bog of Cats... Programme Note, 1998.

^[15]

Woman and Scarecrow[]

Woman and Scarecrow centers on a dying woman's last stretch of time on earth, reflecting on the life she has led. We are told very little of the setting, but presume she resides in a domestic space, as the stage directions in the first act indicate she is lying in bed 'gaunt and ill'.^[16] Apart from the bed, the only furniture indicated is a wardrobe, which has an ominous presence in the play. The mysterious thing that lurks inside the wardrobe signifies death and its imminent approach. For a good part of the play the only other character present is Scarecrow. It is unclear what Scarecrow represents, perhaps the woman's subconscious. It is significant to note that all of the characters in the play "are referred to by either pronouns or titles - Woman, Him, Scarecrow, Auntie Ah, placing a universal slant on who they are and what they represent."^[17] Woman is largely defined as her role as mother and wife throughout the play. She is mother to eight children, with a ninth having died. As the play progresses, we learn that her husband has been unfaithful. Despite being aware of this, Woman at times is still dependent on Him, 'I've missed you in bed beside me'.^[18] On other occasions she redeems herself, asserting her independence by insisting she will not wear her wedding ring to the grave and places value on herself, 'save you were not worthy of my love'.^[19] Her independence is consolidated by the fact that she dies when he is absent from the room. The play runs for approximately 2 hours 20 minutes.^[20]

Woman and Scarecrow was staged for the first time at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre in London in 2006,^[21] directed by Ramin Gray and starring Fiona Shaw and Bríd Brennan as Woman and Scarecrow, respectively.^[22] Lizzie Clachan designed the set for this production, alongside lighting designer, Mischa Twitchin, and sound designer, Emma Laxton.^[23] Later, it was produced in the Peacock Theatre, where it was directed by Selina Cartmell and starred Olwen Fouéré (Woman) and Barbara Brennan (Scarecrow).^[22]

The play opened at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in May 2018. Directed by , the cast included (the woman), Pamela Gray (Scarecrow), (the husband) and Dale Soules (the aunt).^[20]

The Mai[]

The Mai is about a woman in her late 30s, whose husband (and absentee father to their children) returns from having abandoned them, wanted to give their relationship another chance. The play is divided into two acts. The setting for act one is the summer of 1979 (Robert's return from a long time away) and the setting for act two is a year later, as we check in on the state of the precarious relationships established in the first half of the play. Throughout the play, the eponymous The Mai grapples with struggling to keep her marriage alive despite Robert's frequent cheating and conceding to the opinions of her family and leaving him. In the end, she confesses to her daughter Millie, who has served as the narrator of this piece, that she cannot imagine a life without Robert where she would be happy nor a life with him where they could co-exist peaceably together.^[4]

The original production of The Mai took place at, and was produced by, the Abbey Theatre on 5 October 1994. It was directed by Brian Brady and designed by Kathy Strachan. The lead roles were played by Olwen Fouere (The Mai), Derbhle Crotty (Millie), Joan O'Hara (Grandma Fraochlan) Owen Roe (Robert), Brid Ni Neachtain (Beck), Stella McCusker (Julie) and Maire Hastings (Agnes)^[13]

The Mai is thematically in keeping with the main themes of Carr's other work.^[21] These characters are all grappling with their roles as mothers and their roles as wives. It is clear that most of them prioritize their husbands over their children and if they didn't the end up regretting it like Beck, who after pouring herself into her marriage still had to watch it dissolve. Even Grandmother Froachlan, the matriarch of the family says that she would have gladly thrown all of her children into "the slopes of hell" ^[4] to be reunited with the nine-fingered fisherman. Throughout the play Carr weaves these characters relationships in and out of each other to the rhythm of nearby ecology. Millie takes particular interests in the folklore of Owl Lake. In discussing the martial failures alongside the professional triumphs of these women, Carr uses them as vessels to discuss the role of marriage in capitalism and its discriminating patriarchal practices towards unmarried women and single mothers. The Mai is said to have built a sturdy home for her and her children in the years that Robert was gone. This kind of upward mobility is revered by most around her apart from Robert who dismissed her success as having come directly from his generosity. The Mai immediately corrects him reminding him that she was a cellist in the college orchestra and that after he left her to raise their kids alone she was also teaching full-time. Discourse on marriage and it's link to capital is apparent here as the characters talk about how when they lost their husbands they lost everything, referring to their current socio-economic status as spinsters.

Marble[]

Marble opened in Dublin in 2009 at The Abbey Theatre. The four characters are husband and wife Ben and Catherine and a second couple Anne and Art.^[24] The play runs for approximately 1 hour 40 minutes.

Translated into Spanish as Mármol the play opened in Madrid in November 2016 at the Teatro Valle-Inclán, home to the National Drama Centre. It was directed by Antonio C. Guijosa and translated into Spanish by Antonio C. Guijosa and Marta I. Moreno. The cast included José Luis Alcobendas (Ben), Elena González (Catherine), Susana Hernández (Anne) and Pepe Viyuela (Art).^[25]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Allen Randolph, Jody, 'Marina Carr' in Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland (Manchester: Carcanet, 2010).
• McMullan, Anna and Cathy Leeney, eds, The Theatre of Marina Carr: Before Rules Was Made (Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2002).
• Trench, Rhona, Bloody Living: The Loss of Selfhood in the Plays of Marina Carr (Bern: Peter Lang, 2010).
• Maleney, Ian. "Marina Carr: ‘How wonderful to burn down the whole world’", The Irish Times, 22 August 2015.

External links[]

• Gallery Press
• Marina Carr on the Playwrights Database
• Litencyc Com
• Irish Playography Online
• [1]
• [2]
• The Mai Review