Marina Carr

Life and career

Marina Carr was born in 1964, in Dublin, Ireland, but spent the majority of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly. 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. Her mother was the principal of the local school and wrote poetry in Irish, "there was a lot of literary rivalry". As a child, Marina 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",. Carr recalls, "it was serious stuff, we even had a shop and invited all the local kids in; the plays were very violent!"

Contents

• Theatre of war symposium day three concluding talk marina carr
• Marina carr playwright creative director ma theatre studies
• Life and career
• Theatre Works
• Publications
• By the Bog of Cats
• Woman and Scarecrow
• References

Carr attended University College Dublin, studying English and philosophy. She graduated in 1987, and subsequently received an honorary degree of Doctorate of Literature from her alma mater. 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 currently lectures in the English department at Dublin City University. Marina Carr is considered one of Ireland’s most prominent playwrights and is a member of Aosdána. Her works have been translated into many languages, and have received much critical acclaim. 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 EM Foster Prize form 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. The award, which includes a financial prize of $165,000 (or €155,000), will be formally presented in September 2017. She is the second Irish author to receive the prize, following playwright Abbie Spallen in 2016.

Theatre Works

Anna Karenina (The Abbey Theatre) 2016. "Riveting... She lays her own mark upon the material, too, bringing a mordant wit to the characters bleak situations" ****The Irish Times

Mary Gordon (National Concert Hall) 2016. An Oratorio with music by Brian Irvine and Neil Martin.

Indigo Commissioned by the RSC. 2015.

Hecuba (RSC) 2015. Directed by Erica Whyman.

By The Bog of Cats (Abbey Theatre revival) 2015. Directed by Selina Cartmell.

Rigoletto (Opera Theatre Company, Irish National Tour) 2015. New contemporary translation of Verdi's opera. Directed by Selina Cartmell.

16 Possible Glimpses (The Abbey Theatre) 2011 Directed by Wayne Jordan.

Map of Argentina Commissioned by the Abbey Theatre.

Phaedra Backwards (McCarter Theatre, Princeton) 2011. Directed by Emily Mann.

The Giant Blue Hand (Ark Theatre Commission) 2010. Directed by Selina Cartmell.

Impossible Things Before Breakfast: Quartet (Traverse) 2010. Directed by Vicky Featherstone.

Marble (Abbey Theatre) 2009. Directed by Jeremy Herrin.

The Cordelia Dream (RSC at Wilton's Music Hall) 2008. Directed by Selina Cartmell

Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Court Theatre) 2006 Directed by Ramin Gray. Starring Fiona Shaw and Brid Brennan. Revival at the Abbey Theatre 2007.

By The Bog of Cats (Wyndham's Theatre) 2004. Directed by Dominic Cooke. Starring Holly Hunter. Transferred from the Abbey Theatre 1998.

Ariel (Abbey Theatre) 2002. Directed by Conal Morrison.

On Rafferty's Hill (Town Hall Theatre Galway; Royal Court Theatre Downstairs; Kennedy Center Washington DC) 2000. Commission from the Druid Theatre Company. Directed by Garry Hynes.

By The Bog of Cats Commission from the Abbey Theatre 1998. Directed by Patrick Mason.

Portia Coughlan Abbey Theatre 1996. Royal Court Theatre 1996. The Actor's Free Studio, New York 1998.

The Mai Peacock Theatre 1994, Abbey Theatre 1995, McCarter Theatre, Princeton 1996, Tricycle Theatre, London 1997.

Low In The Dark Projects Arts Studio, Dublin 1989.

Ullaloo Dublin Theatre Festival 1989. Abbey Theatre 1991.

This Love Thing (1991).

The Deer Surrender (1990).

Publications

By the Bog of Cats...

The original production of By the Bog of Cats... took place at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. The play opened on October 7, 1998 and ran until November 14th, 1998. The production, totaling 45 performances, was directed by Partrick Mason and designed by Monica Frawley, Other members of the production team included Nick Chelton, lighting designer, Dave Nolan, sound, Audrey Hession and Finola Eustace, stage people, and Kevin Downey and Stephen Dempsey were assistant stage managers.

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.

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:

Bogs are infertile and deadly, filled with acidic soil and the remains of decaying matter like plants and trees. The decomposing plant material piles up and forms peat. Bogs are a rare type of land that is slowly disappearing and now mostly are in the far north containing strange groups of plants and animals. Bogs are the home to animals like the black or northland mudfish, geckos and a few types of birds. As for the plants, bogs contain plants that have adapted to their surroundings and are now able to take the acidic and dangerous soil they reside in. Bogs are sometimes a popular setting for plays that take place in northern parts of the world such as Ireland and Scotland, like in the play By the Bog of Cats by author Marina Carr. Being filled with old, dead, decaying matter, bogs provide an eerie, supernatural setting for any play. A whimsical place that leads the reader to believe almost anything is possible. Leading them into the mental trap like how a bog is a physical one.

Woman and Scarecrow

Woman and Scarecrow centres 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'. Apart from the bed, the only furniture indicated is a wardrobe, which has an ominoius presence in the play. The mysterious thing that lurks inside the wardrobe signifies death and its imminent approach. For a good duration 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.' Woman is largely defined as her role as mother and wife throughout the play. She is mother to eight children, with a ninth having passed away. 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'. 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'. Her independence is consolidated by the fact that she dies when he is absent from the room.

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