Event

MUD by Maria Irene Fornes

RATED R: Due to mature language, sexually explicit content, and violence, this production is rated R. No one under 18 will be admitted without an accompanying adult.

According to playwright Paula Vogel, there are only two stages for contemporary playwrights: before they've encountered Maria Irene Fornes and after. Now in her 80's, Maria Irene Fornes is one of the most innovative and provocative playwrights of our time. Fornes' diverse body of work over the past five decades has earned countless awards. Her plays are a MUST SEE for anyone who loves unique, awe-inspiring theatre.

Her play MUD, for which she won an OBIE AWARD, is a raw and powerful piece of theatre--at once brutal and graphic and tender and poetic in its exploration of education, poverty, sexuality, and self-empoweverment.

We invite you to jump into the mud with us, for this, our boldest production of the year.

Synopsis:
Hopeful, hard-working Mae lives in bleak poverty, but she is going to school and plans to better her life through the refined magic of reading and arithmetic. Lloyd, who lives with Mae, spends his time caring a little too much for the farm animals; he scorns to learn from a book, and treats Mae with angry disrespect. When Lloyd becomes ill, Mae goes searching for a diagnosis, and brings their simple, yet eloquent, neighbor Henry home with her, in order to help her read the difficult medical language. The ensuing love / hate triangle that brews between the three creates a toxic environment, and Mae, whose love and respect for Henry turn to impatience and resentment after an accident renders him helpless, determines that to escape the ill-luck of her life, she must escape the men who depend upon her.