MUD on the Stage

By Tomi Owens, 2-05-07

What I see people looking for today in theatre or other entertainment is some kind of confirmation of their lives… a simple appetite for something that gives them insight into life.”
--Maria Irene Fornes

CAST will present Mud by Maria Irene Fornes at the Columbia Center for the Arts on three weekends in February, 2007. With this play, the award-winning Cuban-American Fornes has written an uncompromising and emotionally truthful piece about the struggle to be free and the quest for some greater understanding of one’s life. Suggestive of the works of Samuel Beckett and John Steinbeck, this terse, lyrical play is both thought-provoking and emotionally evocative. It raises questions about human nature, the biologic, socio-economic and emotional forces that tether us to this world, and the powerful life forces that motivate us.

Mud explores the relationships between a young woman and the two men in her often-myopic world, between the playwright, actors and audience, and between the individual and her dreams. Mud envelops many dynamic dualities: poverty and education, power and impotence, the demands of the physical world and the aspirations of imagination, despair and hope. Through her characters, Fornes creates a rich, haunting world unto itself. It is governed by its own rules, yet, like the theater, it allows insight into that which is most human.

Due to mature themes and language, the show is not suitable for young audiences. Performances will be at 7:30 PM on February 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, and 24 at Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade St., Hood River. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door and can be obtained through Collage of the Gorge in White Salmon or Columbia Art Gallery. Call Columbia Arts at 541-387-8877 if you have any questions.