The woman deemed by The Guardian newspaper to have “emerged as Ireland's premier female playwright” does lean toward the dark side of subjects, particularly motherhood.
Wednesday, July 09, 2014
Playwright Marina Carr explores matters of life and death in 'Woman and Scarecrow'
The woman deemed by The Guardian newspaper to have “emerged as Ireland's premier female playwright” does lean toward the dark side of subjects, particularly motherhood.
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I saw a preview performance of Woman and Scarecrow, and despite being about death, the show didn’t feel dark. In fact, there were quite a few funny moments. Woman was making jokes and caring about unexpected things all the way up until just before the very end. The take on motherhood, specifically the reason Woman desires to be a mother, was unusual, but I wouldn’t call it dark. I think it was more about the unspoken truths that are reality for a lot of people, but no one ever wants to admit. There were a lot of really great directing choices, such as the way they portrayed Woman as bed-bound while still giving her room to make interesting acting choices. I would highly recommend seeing Woman and Scarecrow, which is more reflective than it is dark. If you do go, I would keep an eye out for the stages of grief. Looking back on the play, I think some of them were very clear at certain times, but I’m not sure if they occurred in the “expected” order, or if they were even if they were even distinctly separated or ordered at all.
Based on this article, I think the greatest testament to the strong show that they have in "Woman and Scarecrow" is the fact that the playwright is flying out from Dublin to watch this production. Having viewed the show myself, I can say that her time will be well spent. Through her interview, you can see her passion for the writing shine through everything that she does, and the personal relationship she appears to have with the director gives the prospective audience member that added little bit of comfort. This director knows the work and knows the playwright, so he should be able to handle the work well. To characterize the show as dark would be removing all the subtle nuances of the characters that bring elements of levity into the show. The darkly comic interchanges between the husband and wife detail the struggle of a love neither of them completely had for the other. Scarecrow knows how the story goes, but Woman is still trying to piece it together, creating a strong undercurrent of dramatic irony. All in all, Woman and Scarecrow gets a two strong thumbs-up, and it's exciting to know the writer will get to see such a strong performance of her work.
Having watched a dress rehearsal of the PICT performance itself, I can rightfully say that the article does an excellent job of covering the fact that there is a highly fluid mixture of comedy and tragedy in the script, and that it covers the reality that the world is, in fact, a mixture of “dark and light.” Granted, the play holds its supernatural elements, from an avian grim reaper to mind-bending hallucinations, but they do not give the performance and unrealistic feel by any means, and only add to Marina Carr’s vision of life and stance on mortality. An interesting thought to keep in mind while watching the play is that there is no inherently “good” character. In fact, there is so much moral ambiguity in between the characters that it can be inferred that it was intentional and another example of how reality works. The PICT performance is a beautiful rendition of a script that exposes the untethered emotion of humankind while also mixing in a comedic factor that begs for an audience.
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