Marina Carr

Carr was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1964, but spent most of her childhood in Pallas Lake, County Offaly, adjacent to the town of Tullamore.

Carr's father, Hugh Carr, was a playwright and her mother, Maura Eibhlín Breathnach, was an Irish poet.

As a child, Carr and her siblings, John and Deirdre, built a theater in their shed.

Carr attended University College Dublin, studying English and philosophy.

The Mai won the Dublin Theatre Festival's Best New Irish Play award (1994–1995), and Portia Coughlan won the nineteenth Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (1996–1997).

Marina Carr is an Irish playwright, known for By the Bog of Cats (1998).

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.

The play opened on October 7, 1998 and ran until 14 November 1998.

The production, totalling 45 performances, was directed by Patrick Mason and designed by Monica Frawley.

Other members of the production team included lighting designer Nick Chelton, with sound by Dave Nolan.

The lead roles were played by Siobhán Cullen (Josie Kilbride), Olwen Fouéré (Hester Swane), and Conor McDermottroe (Carthage Kilbride).

Other characters were played by Joan O’Hara (Catwoman), Flonnuala Murphy (Carline Cassidy), and Tom Hickey (Xavier Cassidy).

Irish writer Frank McGuinness wrote the programme note for 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.

Woman and Scarecrow centres on a dying woman's last stretch of time on earth, reflecting on her life.

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 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."

The woman is largely defined in her role as mother and wife throughout the play.

She is the mother of eight children, with a ninth having died.

As the play progresses, we learn that her husband has been unfaithful.

Despite being aware of this, a Woman at times is still dependent on Him, 'I've missed you in bed beside me.

In 2011, she received an honorary Doctorate of Literature from her alma mater.

Carr has held posts as writer-in-residence at the Abbey Theatre and has lectured at Trinity College Dublin, Princeton University, and Villanova University.

She lectured in the English department at Dublin City University in 2016.

Carr is a member of Aosdána.

She was the second Irish author to receive the prize, following playwright Abbie Spallen in 2016.

Original Plays

Adaptations

The original production of By the Bog of Cats took place at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Carr was named a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Award in September 2017, administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.