‘The Mai’ Brings Irish Humor & Tragedy to Arlington Friends of the Drama
Directed by former Wakefield resident Nancy Curran Willis
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and as much as we’d like to, most of us can’t just drop everything and go off to celebrate in Ireland. Fortunately, the Arlington Friends of the Drama are offering a very attractive alternative that will whisk you off to Ireland for two charming hours. And you won’t even need a carry-on.
The Mai (pronounced “May”) is Irish playwright Marina Carr’s lyrical and allegorical tragicomedy about love, tradition, heritage and family, told through a mix of Irish storytelling, Greek mythology and feminine politics.
The show also has a local link, as award winning director Nancy Curran Willis is at the helm of the production. Willis graduated from Wakefield High School in 1965 (as Nancy Sturtevant) and has won awards for directing both professional and community theater, including a 2008 Elliot Norton Award (Boston’s equivalent of the Tony) for Best Director and Best Production for Angels in America.
The Mai opens in the living room of a lovely Irish countryside cottage. Through a large picture window, we see a row of trees leading to what we will soon learn is Owl Lake. To the left and just behind the living room is a music room lined with shelves of books and framed academic degrees.
The cottage is a physical testament to Mai’s obsessive love for her wayward and straying musician husband, Robert (played by Iain Bason). In her monomaniacal determination to lure Robert back, Mai (Jennifer Soucy) even sent her children off to live with another family so she could take a second job to pay for the house. It appears to have fulfilled its purpose, as Robert has just returned after a five-year absence (presumably in America).
The story is told through the eyes of Mai’s now adult daughter, Millie (Jenna Lourenco), who was 11 years old when her father left. She recalls that in the immediate aftermath of Robert’s departure, her mother would incongruously send her to the butcher shop for a needle and thread. It was as if, Millie recalls, her mother “was seeking a magic thread” that would stitch the family back together.
Millie also recalls that Mai would sit silently in the cottage’s picture window sending mental messages to Robert.
When Robert finally returns we see him playing his cello in the music room that Mai has built for him. He soon emerges and affectionately runs his bow over Mai’s body, a not-so-subtle metaphor for the way that he is “playing” her.
As we have come to expect with Irish writers, The Mai is full of black humor and boasts a cast of colorful characters.
There’s the 100 year-old hedonist, Grandma Fraochlan (Anne Sullivan), who enjoys a wee taste of mulberry wine and has a weakness for the opium pipe, a habit she picked up from her Arabian father. When she’s had a few, Grandma is apt to wax melancholy about her own youthful love for “the nine-fingered fisherman.”
Then there are Mai’s judgmental aunts, Agnes (Tricia Akowicz) and Julie (Demetra Tseckares-Restuccia) who represent the Catholic Church’s omnipresence in Ireland.
Katie Higgins as Mai’s married sister, Connie, and Nellie Farrington as her 37 year-old single sister Beck round out the cast. They never contacted Mai during Robert’s long absence, but now that he’s back they are only too happy to offer their pessimistic assessment of recent developments.
Things at first seem fine between Mai and Robert, although none the relatives who come and visit share Mai’s giddy optimism, with good reason, as it turns out.
When Mai asks Robert at one point what made him decide to come home, Robert reveals that he had a dream that Mai had died and his cello case served as her coffin. Probably not the answer Mai was hoping for.
Jenna Lourenco, who wrote several academic essays on The Mai and now teaches at Emmanuel College, explained after the show that placing the article “The” before Mai’s name is a Celtic tradition of respect. Mai is certainly the central figure in this family. But her unrequited loyalty to Robert and her tragically idealistic view of romantic love are simultaneously her most admirable and her most damaging qualities.
An original score composed by Valerie Ellen Forgione and performed by cellist Antione Malfroy-Carmine enhances this memorable play.
The Mai runs Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 9 at 4 p.m. at the Arlington Friends of the Drama, 22 Academy St., Arlington, MA. Purchase tickets online or phone 781-646-5922.
[Set Designer, Doug Desilets; Lighting Design, Mark Stickler; Sound Design, Bob Pascucci; Costume Design, Andrea Goodman; Hair & Makeup Design, Jack Wickwire; Production Manager, Ginger Webb.]
(This story originally appeared in the March 4, 2014 Wakefield Daily Item.)
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, Reviews, theater, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Anne Sullivan, Antione Malfroy-Carmine, Arlington Friends of the Drama, Demetra Tseckares-Restuccia, Iain Bason, Ireland, Irish, Jenna Lourenco, Jennifer Soucy, Katie Higgins, Marina Carr, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Nancy Curran Willis, Nellie Farrington, play, The Mai, theater, theatre, Tricia Akowicz, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Search this site
Categories
Flickr Photos
Archives
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
Recent Comments
Mark Sardella on A very Special Town Meeti… John Breithaupt on A very Special Town Meeti… Mark Sardella on A very Special Town Meeti… John Breithaupt on A very Special Town Meeti… Dan Noren on A very Special Town Meeti… Blog Stats
- 368,034 hits
LINKS
No Responses Yet to “‘The Mai’ Brings Irish Humor & Tragedy to Arlington Friends of the Drama”