Portia Coughlan

by Marina Carr

Beautiful and blessed with a wealthy, adoring husband and three young sons, Portia Coughlan would seem to have it all, but grief over the drowning of her twin brother, Gabriel, fif-teen years ago in the Belmont River continues to torment her and prevents her from being the mother and wife she wishes she could be. Meanwhile, the confining village of Belmont that Portia calls home is populated by hilarious, brazen and cantan-kerous characters. From Portia to her husband, Raphael, to her vicious-tongued octogenarian granny, Blaize, to her loving aunt, the ex-prostitute Maggie-May, Marina Carr's characters are exquisitely drawn and profoundly human.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Irish Literature, Theatre

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Marina Carr was brought up in County Offaly. A graduate of University College Dublin, she has written extensively for the theatre. She has taught at Villanova, Princeton, and currently teaches in the School of English, Dublin City University. Awards include the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the Macaulay Fellowship, the E. M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Wyndham Campbell Prize. She lives in Dublin with her husband and four children.

Reviews

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The sight of you in church’d blush the host and pale the wine."

[Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this was commissioned by a maternity clinic is insane.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

MARCH

40. by Marina Carr (no photo)

Finish date: 15 March 2022
Genre: Play
Rating: A++++++++++
Review:

Good news: Structure: I was NOT expecting this! Act 1 beginning - Act 2 the end - Act 3 the middle! ...an Irish Greek Tragedy.

Good news: Theme: (act 3,3) Portia wonders…”Is our lives followin’ a minute and careful plan…or are we flittin’ from chance to chance? (determinism vs fatalism).

Good news: Puzzles: Ms. Carr fills her play with metaphors, images, objects dripping with symbolism and foreshadowing! (ghost of her twin, white horse statue). I love reading a good play…it is more challenging than a novel, IMO! Act 1,2: “…a day to hop the ram in on the ewes”. You might just read over this but it mirrors Shakespeare! Othello: Act 1,1 "Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is topping your white ewe."

Good news: Buzz word in the play: MOOD.....and try to connect the dots! Act 1: queer mood — one of your b**chy moods again — Act 3: when your mood changes - her mood has changed again — what sort of a mood? — I’ve lived through every mood.

Good news Tension: Act 2,2 ….after the funeral just an explosive family verbal brawl! Portia’s aunt and old prostitute confronts Portia’s bitter grandmother Blaize: “…You know and I know when the ROT began and HOW the ROT began.” As audience/reader, we must know the truth!

Good news: Symbol: Just by reading the list of characters I get an idea what may happen. Symbol: Ghost: The appearance of a ghost (Gabriel) has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death Seeing one's own ghostly double (Portia is Gabriel's twin) is a related omen of death.

Good news: New Rule: Reading a play is more work than reading a novel. The night before I read a play I make a list of the characters (names, ages etc). Then I list the acts and scenes and place the names of the characters in the specific scene. Then I go to sleep...and try to find connections between the characters, their names. For example in this play two characters were named after angels. This helps me imagine what could happen.

Personal: The measure of success in theater is always 'Does the conversation continue after the play is over? Does the play linger in your mind? Well this play will linger for sure. Ms Marina Carr is a formidable talent and she’s proved it by winning the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize 2017 (165.000 dollar!). Just reading this play was impressive…I cannot imagine the intensity one would feel seeing it on stage. I really miss going to see GREAT performances in a theatre.…so I’ll just have to read plays on paper.

[gretchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

strange, dark, lovely.
“that fellow’d have ya pillowed and then broadcast it on the mornin news” (23).
“I’ll take ya for dinner.
Can have dinner at home, only want to fuck ya” (25).
“I know the topography of your mind” (27).
“If hell were free, you’d go there, sooner than pay a small entry fee to heaven” (28).
“The whole world knows ya can kill a body just be lookin at them if you look long enough and you look wrong enough” (32).
“The sight of you in church’d blush the host and pale the wine” (45).
“You’re great at feelin’ long after the need to feel be gone” (46).
“Senchil wasn’t born, he was knitted on a wet Sunday afternoon” (55).
“we shadow people leave ne’er mark at all” (60).
“If Raphael Coughlan notices me I will have a chance to enter the world and stay in it” (69).

[Jamjun Rorsoongnern · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know where to begin! This wrenching and haunting drama is incredibly evocative, even on the page. Each scene is so immersive, only drawing you out when Portia hears Gabreil singing, making it more emotionally moving. Portia is such a devastating character made even more tragic when the dramatic reveals are uncovered to the audience. I can’t write too much without giving it all away, but reading this play left me raw and weeping (which to me is a sign of a very good play to me so I find the bad reviews of this hilarious, of course it's bleak and tragic! Its dark, devastating display is truly a feat!)

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly going straight to the heart, deeply disturbingly fascinating. Carr plays with identity and self: where does the I stops and where does the Other start? I liked the anachronical sequence of the three acts.

[Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea I was launching myself into a horror story. Nice surprise to find something so irreverent, perverse. Forbidden fruits and mythic legacies and the vice in blood and birth turned passion.

Terrifying, seductive.

[T P Kennedy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably a great play to see in person but not a good read on the page. It's bleakness almost to the point of absurdity. I'm sure seeing a staging of this would transform it.

[Serafina Cusack · Rating 2 out of 5]

This play is relentlessly bleak and I didn’t really enjoy reading or watching it.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw this in person at Almeida Theatre in London and it was beautiful. What a gripping tragedy that feels viscerally real.

[Olivia Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

So dark and weird but also so sad

[T.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sight of you in a church’d blush the host and pale the wine.

[Lisa B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this Play while i was collecting monologues for my acting course, I think this play can evoke great emotions and certaintly left me thinking.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew. Talk about an uncompromising artistic vision: when will Marina Carr let her leading ladies survive?

[Brigid O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And if ya really care to know I’ve always found sex to be a great let-down, all that suckin’ and sweatin’ and stickin’ things into one another makes sense to me no more.” (pg. 51)