Heather Sell Allison Campbell THE 390 10 December 2011 Where in the world is Marina Carr?

: Ireland and Marina Carr

Marina Carr is one of Irelands most famous playwrights, and who first rose to fame during the late nineties and into the early 2000s. Many of Marina Carrs plays take place in Midlands Ireland, a place Carr knows well, as it is where she grew up. According to the book Irish women writers: an A-to-Z guide, Her first play Ullalo (1991), was written at UCD [University College Dublin], though not performed at the Peacock until more than three years later and two years after Low in the Dark.1 Furthermore, Carrs work bears many similarities to the work of her predecessors (Beckett, Yeats, Lady Gregory) and yet her work is oddly contemporary, set in a world that is isolated from and yet very similar to our own. This paper will address the themes of Carrs work, how her work is similar to her fellow playwrights, past and present. In particular, I will focus on how Carr uses the theme of the grotesque in her two plays Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats at lenght. The paper will also look at articles about how other productions have been staged and what critics and reviewers thought of some of these productions.

Gonzalez, A. G. (2006). Irish women writers: an a-to-z guide. London: Greenwrood Press. Page 62

First, before I go into the themes of Carrs work, I think it is important that we learn a little about who Marina Carr is, where she grew up, and what her childhood was like:

Carr grew up in Gortnamona, near Tullamore, and Pallas Lake, County Offaly. She attended Sacred Heart School in Tullamore. While Carr was growing up, her mother was the principal in a national school, and her father, Hugh Carr, wrote novels and plays, including ones staged at the Abbey, Peacock, and Gate theaters in Dublin. Carr was the second oldest of six children. Her mother, who also wrote poetry, died when the playwright was seventeen. Carr attended University College Dublin, where she read philosophy and English and participated in the Drama Society, as both an actress and a writer.2

From the quote above, we can see that Carr grew up in a household where the arts and expression were encouraged. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Carr followed her fathers footsteps and became a playwright. As mentioned in the introduction, Carrs two plays Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats both use elements of the grotesque.

In her article Irelands exiled women playwrights: Teresa Deevy and Marina Carr, Cathy Leeney discusses the themes of alienation and exile and how they relate to the work of both playwrights. While reading Carrs By the Bog of Cats, I, too, was struck by themes of grotesqueness as well as themes of alienation and exile. I wish to explore both of those themes in more detail, especially how Carrs two playsPortia Coughlan, and By the Bog of Catsuse these themes of the grotesque and alienation respectively. As an
2

Gonzalez, page 61-62

active reader of Carrs work, I feel that exploring her work only for alienation or only for the grotesqueness of her work will not do justice to a text that is so rich and layered with symbolism. To read the play with only one of these things in mind is to miss the forest for the treesit would be catastrophiclike imagining the play without Hesters interactions with the fascinating Catwoman, or without the dead swan that ties Hester to the bog forever. Here, my ultimate goal is to show how Carr uses the Irish landscape, Greek tragedy, and constantly refers to earlier Irish playwrights to create a three-way marriage between the grotesque, the past, and modern Ireland. As mentioned, the grotesque is a prominent theme in Carrs plays Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, grotesque means, as an observation, Of landscape: Romantic, picturesquely irregular3. Both of these plays give the audience female heroines who neither forgive nor ask permission for what they do. Rather, they enter the theater as if they own it, demanding what they think is rightfully theirs. Furthermore, the opening line of By the Bog of Cats is Hester demanding to know Who are you? Havent seen you around here before4. Such a statement is evocative, and the scene only gets more haunting from there, with the mysterious persons declaration Im a ghost fancier and the revelation later that he is looking for Hester herself. Likewise, with Portia Coughlan, the opening stage directions are also evocative, albeit for different reasons:

OED, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/81794?rskey=aj3p0D&result=2&isAdvanced=false#eid 2540363 4 Carr, 265

Two isolating lights up. One on Portia Coughlan in her living room. She wears a nightdress and a sweatshirt. Disheveled and barefoot, she stands, staring forward, a drink in her hand; curtains closed. The other light comes up simultaneously on Gabriel Scully, her dead twin. He stands at the bank of the Belmont River, singing. They mirror one anothers posture and movements in an odd way; unconsciously. Portia stands there, drinking lost-looking, listening to Gabriels voice.5 As is evident by the stage directions, the play, By the Bog of Cats, is ridden with ghosts and skeletons. I think it is safe to say that if Gabriels death were not an important part of the plotor if how he died did not affect Portias life in a remarkable wayhis character would have been demoted to a simple footnote. From the start of the playjust as she did with By the Bog of Cats, Carr prepares the audience to embark on a journey of the grotesque. Furthermore, with Portia Coughlan, Carr gives the audience a very different, yet still assertive character. The first two lines of the play, delivered by her husband Raphael, tell us a lot about her character: Ah for fucks sake. Ten Oclock in the mornin and youre at it already [drinking]6. Like Hester, Portia cannot get over the absence of a loved one, and returns throughout the play to the Belmont River, hoping and waiting for him to return, even though she knows he is dead. Likewise, Hester Swane spends her entire life waiting for her mother to return: And I watched her walk away from me across the Bog of Cats. And across the Bog of Cats Ill watch her return.7 Both Hester and Portia are only reunited with their loved ones through death. Hesters death, unlike Portias, is foreshadowed at the beginning of the play. In a sense, the ghost fanciers

5 6

Carr, 193 Carr, 193 7 Carr, 297

presence acts as a prologue that catapults the characters into action and lets us know why Hester chooses this day of all days to act. There are many reasons why Hester would choose this day to go off the deep end. Her former lover, Carthage Kilbride is getting married that day to Caroline Cassidy, a girl Hester used to babysit. Another more uncanny reason, relates to old Black Wing, the black swan we see Hester dragging at the beginning of the play. Apparently, Hesters mother told Catwoman That child will live as long as this swan, not a day more, not a day less.8 Since the audience sawHester dragging the corpse of Old Black Wing at the top of the show, it is clear that by the end of the show either someone will kill Hester or she will take her own life. Matters are complicated even more by the fact that the ghost fancier appeared, mistook dawn for dusk, and thus claimed that he was too previous.9 As mentioned previously, my goal with this paper is to prove not only that Carr uses the grotesque extremely well, but also that she borrows from past Irish playwrights. In his article Talking with Ghosts of Irish Playwrights Past: Marina Carrs By the Bog of Cats, Richard Russell discusses how Carr has been influenced by her predecessors. Russell addresses how the ghosts of the play are not the only ghosts present in the text, and that the play has the ghostly presence of Irish dramatists from the past, whose work Carr has heavily drawn on, yet modified-suggests how best to understand the comparative dramatic context of the play.10 Concerning chapter 11, The Book of the Dead, in Homers Odyssesy, Carr has this to say:

8 9

Carr, 275 Carr, 267 10 Russell, Richard. "Talking with Ghosts of Irish Playwrights: Marina Carr's By the Bog if Cats." Comparative Drama. 40.2 (Summer 2006): ppp-pp 149-168. Print.

Homer talking about writing and how to gain access to hidden knowledge, to the past, to the dead, to that other world. And what he seems to be saying is you must give blood, blood being the sacrifice demanded for the tongues or the ear of the dead. [These passages from Homer demonstrate] incredible bravery on the part of the writer. Its about the courage to sit down and face the ghosts and have a conversation with them. Its about going over to the other side and coming back with something, new, hopefully; gold, possibly.11 Carrs thoughts on Homers Odyssey suggest that the author has a keen sense of how death worksand how it shouldnt work. Her characters often cling to death for a little too long, and as is often the case, take more than skeletons with them to their graves. They take their skeletons, other people, and grievances with them: Hester kills her own daughter before the ghost fancier arrives and the two enter into a dance of death.12 Furthermore, Russells article mentions Yeatss belief that language should be at the center of his plays: I wanted to get rid of irrelevant movement, the stage must become still that words might keep all their vividness, and I wanted vivid words.13 The playwrights Lady Augusta Gregory and John Millington Synge also shared Yeatss belief that language was more important than movement. Moreover, Russell cites Hesters disdain, in act 1, scene 5, for the contract she has signed that gives her house and property over to her former love, Carthage Kilbride, and his fianc, Carolina Cassidy: Bits of writin, means nothin, can as aisy be unsigned."14 In a way, Carr has taken their advice to heart, and uses movement only at key points in the text: Hester dragging the dead swan,
11 12

Marina Carr, quoted in Richard Russell, 150 Carr, 339-341 13 Willliam Butler Yeats, quoted in Richard Russell, 151 14 Marina Carr, cited in Richard Russell, 154

and the dance of death. Furthermore, language, especially in plays of Irish descent and content, should have language at their heart, given that the dialect and language of the Irish is a rich one. Both Portia Coughlan and By the Bog of Cats are written with a midlands Irish accent in mind. On the character personae page for Portia Coughlan, Marina Carr writes that the accent is Midland. Ive given some flavor in the text, but the Midland accent is more rebellious than the written word permits.15 Carr does something similar for By the Bog of Cats: Ive given a slight flavor in the text, but the real Midland accent is a lot flatter and rougher and more guttural than the written word allows.16 In their article Performing Ireland: new perspectives on contemporary Irish theater, Brian Singleton and Anna McMullan address the ever devolving Irish theater scene. According to the article, The phenomenal rise in arts funding in the past ten years in the Republic of Ireland has been a symptom of a booming economy which began roughly in 1993.17 The article went on to discuss how the economic boom of the nineties led to an increase of funding in the theater. I mention this because Carrs play By the Bog of Cats had its world premiere at the Abbey Theater as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival on October 7, 1998. The play premiered during a time of economic security, and yet, her characters are so far removed from the world in which Carr wrote the play. In that regard, Marina Carr occupies an interesting place in contemporary theater in the sense that her work is more tied to the past than it is to the present. Many of her plays take elements of past Irish playwrights, reference or rewrite Greek tragedies in modern times. While the

15 16

Carr, 191 Carr, 261 17 Singleton, Brian, and Anna mcMullan. "Performing Ireland: new perspectives on contemporary Irish theater." Australasian Drama Studies. .43 (Oct 2003): ppp-pp 3-15. Print.

setting of her plays is indeed the present,18 her characters constantly put more stake in the past and its implications on their lives than they do on the present. Case in point, Portia cannot get over the death of her twin brother Gabriel, and we later find out that they had planned to commit suicide together in the Belmont River, but she backed out at the last minute. Likewise, Hester is haunted by what Catwoman calls a fierce wrong [] thats caught up with ya,19 which we later find out is the murder of Joseph Swane, her long lost brother. In a sense, Portia and Hester invent shadowsthey live in dark worlds of their own mind and give no mind to the world that continues to turn around them, regardless of the consequences. The consequences of these invented shadows, or, rather, living in the past, is Portias eventual suicide in Act two and Hesters sacrificial murder of her daughter Josie and her subsequent dance of death with the ghost fancier. The stake that Hester and Portia put in the past, and the extent to which they go to remain in the past, or to drag other characters down with them, is reminiscent of the grotesque. In Portia Coughlan, we see a character haunted by the death and yet there is no blood on her hands as there was with Hesters murder of Joseph Swane, since Gabriel drowned. Usually, with drowning, a person struggles to breathe and stay above water Hester cut Josephs throat and had to wash the blood off of her hands. Portia, on the other hand, had to live with the guilt that she had backed out of their pact, and that there was no concrete evidence that she had had any part in Gabriels demise, just a notion hanging over her head that she had indeed played a part in his death. Portias real challenge is living with herself after the death of her twin, which, ultimately, ends up being

18 19

Carr, 191 and 261 respectively Carr, 274

impossible. In the play, the element of the grotesque comes not only from the bloodless death of Gabriel, but from the closeness of the twins: Came out of the womb holding handsWhen God was handing out souls he mustve got mine and Gabriels mixed up, aither that or he gave us just the one between us and it went into the Belmont River with himOh, Gabriel, ya had no right to discard me so, to float me on the world as if I were a ball of flotsam. Ya had no right.20 In the quote above, Portia discusses the closeness of herself and Gabriel in grotesque termsso much so that it should come as no surprise that the two of them had a sexual relationship. In a way, Carr sets this up was a precursor to that revelation, as if she as playwright is preparing the audience for that discovery and sets up part of its history. Moreover, Carr later reveals that Portias parents are brother and sister, so the sexual relationship of Portia and Gabriel comes off as destiny. The two of them come from incest and then go out of this world through incest: Gabriel sees Portia with another man and becomes guilty, and the suicide pact comes about. The grotesque in this play comes more from a mixture from the landscape and the family history. On the other hand, the grotesqueness in By the Bog of Cats seems to stem from the landscape of the bog, which is easily enacted upon. In Portias world, the Belmont River is a landscape that both gives life and takes it awaythe habitation surrounding the river receives nourishment from the rivers water and the river ultimately takes the life of Gabriel and Portia respectively. However, the deaths of these two characters are far from accidental: Gabriels death

20

Carr, 211

fifteen years before the play takes place was suicide, just as Portias death on her thirtieth birthday is suicide as well. The third part of the three-way marriage I mentioned in the opening paragraph is Carrs link to Greek tragedy. Carrs play By the Bog of Cats is a modern day portrayal of Euripidess Medea. In the original tragedy, Medea is a lover who is ousted and exchanged for a new, younger lover. Medea, like Hester, refuses to accept her alienation. Medea poisons a dress and jewels, which she has her children deliver to the princess, who is to be married to Medeas former lover, Jason, that day. The difference between the two plays is that the action of Medea takes place off-stage and is described through dialogue. Carr uses the grotesque nature of the tragedy of Medea to enhance her play. The opening image of Hester dragging the swan, Hester showing up at the wedding, and the sacrificial killing of Josie and subsequent dance of death all occur on stage. The only action not to occur on stage is the burning of the house, farm, and the cattle. However, we see the aftermath and the havoc that ensues and I think it is safe to say that it is this that causes the themes of the play to come full circle. Carrs other play, Portia Coughlan, while not a direct translation of a Greek tragedy, certainly has elements of tragedy in it. One could certainly consider Portia Coughlan to be a tragic hero, but a modern day tragic hero with several deathly flaws, some of them perhaps more fatal than others. The main flaw, of course, is that she is haunted by her twin brothers death and the fact that she did not follow through with their planned suicide. Now that I have gone over the grotesque themes of Marina Carrs plays By the Bog of Cats and Portia Coughlan, I will discuss where her works have been produced. Carrs work was recently seen at Villanova University. According to an article from

Stage Magazine, about a recent production of Carrs work at Villanova, Woman and Scarecrow, the university has recently begun a relationship with the Abbey Theater: Villanova Universitys highly respected Theatre Department is beginning an exchange program with Irelands celebrated Abbey Theatre; the two institutions will be working together to further enrich their artistic and intellectual traditions. Students from Villanova will be afforded the opportunity to study with the Abbey in Dublin and artists from there will spend time at the University. There will be lectures, workshops and community conversations as the University offers a home away from home for the Abbey. The inaugural event in this exchange is the Theatres production of Marina Carrs WOMAN AND SCARECROW, onstage at Vasey Hall November 8th thru the 20th.21 In that same article, the writer mentions, Deathand dying; the Irish (and I am one) seem to be obsessed with this topic. Dont know why this is, but it is a subject oft explored in the theatre of my heritage.22 Furthermore, Marina Carr has had seventeen premiers at the Abbey Theater: Marble is Marinas seventh premiere at the Abbey. Previous plays first performed here are Ullaloo, The Mai, Portia Coughlan, By the Bog of Cats, Ariel and Meat and Salt. Other plays include On Rafterys Hill (Druid/Royal Court), Low in the Dark (Project Arts Centre), Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Court), The Cordelia Dream (RSC) and The Giant Blue Hand (The Ark). Awards include The
21

http://stagepartners.org/2011/11/raging-against-the-dying-of-the-light-villanovapresents-marina-carrs-woman-and-scarecrow/ 22 http://stagepartners.org/2011/11/raging-against-the-dying-of-the-light-villanovapresents-marina-carrs-woman-and-scarecrow/

Macaulay Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the E.M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has held the Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova. She was the 1932 fellow at Princeton for 2008. She currently teaches playwriting at Trinity College Dublin where she is an honorary professor. A member of Aosdna, Marina lives in Kerry with her husband and four children.23 The McCarter theater in New Jersey was one of the first theaters in the United States to put on Carrs work: Phaedra Backwards is a McCarter commission, and its the third time one of her plays has been staged at the theater. She and Emily Mann, McCarters artistic director and the director of Phaedras Backwards, first met 15 years ago when Ms. Mann saw one of Ms. Carrs plays in London. That led to The Mai being staged in Princeton in 1996, followed by Portia Coughlan in 1999.24

In conclusion, it is clear that Marina Carrs plays explore elements of the grotesque, and that her work is prominent. Her work is being produced all over the world, with future productions coming up in the U.S. Carr was a prominent playwright during the nineties and well into the 2000s, and fortunately for theatergoers, it doesnt look like she shows any desire of quitting writing.

23 24

http://www.abbeytheatre.ie/people/view/marina_carr/

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2011/11/02/time_off/entertainment_news/doc4eb1 cd9c084c6563972360.txt

Works Cited

Gonzalez, A. G. (2006). Irish women writers: an a-to-z guide. London: Greenwrood

OED, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/81794?rskey=aj3p0D&result=2&isAdvanced=false#eid 2540363

Russell, Richard. "Talking with Ghosts of Irish Playwrights: Marina Carr's By the Bog if Cats." Comparative Drama. 40.2 (Summer 2006): ppp-pp 149-168. Print.

Singleton, Brian, and Anna mcMullan. "Performing Ireland: new perspectives on contemporary Irish theater." Australasian Drama Studies. .43 (Oct 2003): ppp-pp 3-15. Print.