Mud, by Maria Irene Fornes

By: Mattie Barber-Bockelman '16, Teresa Cruz '16, Spencer Lutvak '16, David Socolar '16

Advising Faculty: Kenneth Prestininzi

A directing and acting capstone project with the play "Mud," by Maria Irene Fornes, a Cuban-American avant garde playwright.

Mae lives in bleak poverty with her childhood playmate, pig-farmer Lloyd. She attempts schooling herself in reading and arithmetic, because she wants to believe there is more to life than struggling to survive. When Lloyd becomes ill, Mae brings Henry home with her to read a health clinic pamphlet’s difficult medical language. The ensuing love / hate triangle that brews between the three creates a toxic environment that is exasperated when Henry is rendered dependent by an accident. Mae realizes she must escape the men who depend upon her if she is to rise above common baseness and not die in the mud. Maria Irene Fornes has written an grotesque comedy and uncompromising tender drama in Mud; self-improvement is a quixotic far-off goal and the bleak nature of everyday selfishness is always ready to pounce.

Related Fields: Theater