Abstract
The paper summarises the current state of research and it outlines the thesis, its aims and its envisioned structure. The goal of the project is to investigate the theatre of Marina Carr with focus on the playwright's engagement with the ancient Greek cultural heritage.
Marina Carr has rewritten a number of Greek tragedies as the following plays: By the Bog of Cats...(1998), a transposition of Euripides' Medea (431 BC) into contemporary Irish midlands, Ariel (2002), a subversion of Aeschylus' The Oresteia, Phaedra Backwards (2011), based on Euripides' Hippolytus, Hecuba (2015), another revision of Euripides, and most recently Girl on an Altar (2022), returning to Aeschylus' Agamemnon. Marina Carr has been celebrated as one of the most prominent female playwrights in the Irish context.
The representation of women has also been seen as Carr's artistic method. The aim of this thesis is to search for new ways to explore Carr's work.
Examining Carr's engagement with the theatrical tradition of Classical Athens, the focus is on traditionally marginal(ised) perspectives. The envisioned chapters will focus on key ancient Greek concepts that are still significant in contemporary 'Western' and Irish culture: citizenship, the state, the family unit, and warfare.