User:Apaigeinabook/sandbox

Change introductory sentence. I would write something like: "Marina Carr, born November 17, 1964 is a prolific Irish playwright. She has written almost thirty plays, including By the Bog of Cats (1998) which was most recently revived at the Abbey Theater in 2014."

I intend to split the "Early life and Career" section into two subjects, respectively.

Early life

Marina Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland but she spent the majority of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly, adjacent 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. Her mother, Maura Eibhlín Breathneach, was the principal of the local school and wrote poetry in Irish. 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".[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].

Career 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. [5] Marina Carr is currently a member of Aosdána.Aosdana Her works have been translated into many languages (how many?)' Bold text' , and have received much critical acclaim. She currently lectures in the English department at Dublin City University. Acclaim and 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 (do titles of works need to be italicized?) 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.[6][7] The award, which includes a financial prize of $165,000 (or €155,000), will be formally presented in September 2017.[6] She is the second Irish author to receive the prize, following playwright Abbie Spallen in 2016.[6] I intend to find a source that confirms that The Deer Surrender has not been commissioned, as under the commissioned section of the table, it says "not applicable". I intend to find out whether that means it was never performed or if that means that it is a piece that is not meant to be performed. Find or write a synopsis for The Mai or Raferty's Hill. Will update the section on publications to reflect the publication of her most recent works

Update: I searched the web high and low and found nothing as to when this play may have actually been physically produced. N/A in that sections seems pretty inoffensive since (and Marina Carr would agree to this) no one is clambering to revive it.

Productions notes about The Mai:

The original production of The Mai took place at, and was produced by, the Abbey Theater on October 5th,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)

A synopsis I wrote about 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 late, 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 narrorator of this peice, 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. "

Character List

The Mai, forty

Millie, 16 at the time where the story is being recounted and 30 as a narrator. She is onstage throughout.

Grandmother Froachlan, Millie's grandmother and The Mai's mother. She has seven children and spent most of their childhood's pining for their father who is referred to throughout this play as the nine-fingered fisherman.

Robert, Millie's father and The Mai's husband. He comes back after having unceremoniously left The Mai. Characters in the play generally dislike him but tolerate him. The Mai is hopelessly devoted to him despite his rampant cheating, his mistress (in Act II) and his indifference and laziness at covering his tracks

Beck, 47. The Mai's older sister. Millie's aunt. She is going through a divorce and seemingly relieved to have separated from her husband but she feels her morality here as she feels too old to ever find happiness.

Connie, 38. The Mai's younger sister.

Julie, 75. The Mai's aunt and her late mother's sister. Grandmother Froachlan's daughter.

Agnes, 71. The Mai's aunt.

Ellen, deceased, The Mai's mother. Died after giving birth to The Mai.

The Mai is thematically in keeping with the main themes of Carr's other work. 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" 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 folkore 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.