Maria Irene Fornes Criticism
Maria Irene Fornes, a pivotal force in avant-garde theater, emerged as a significant contributor to the off-off-Broadway movement starting in the 1960s. Born in Havana, Cuba, and later immigrating to the United States, Fornes transitioned from painting to playwriting under the influence of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Her unique style, characterized by the integration of surreal and symbolic elements, has earned her an esteemed place in the theatrical world, evidenced by her seven Obie Awards. Fornes's work primarily explores human relationships, delving into themes of power, communication, and sexual politics without relying on traditional plot structures or character development. Her ability to blend humor with deeper philosophical insights is noted by Susan Sontag, who praises her plays for maintaining wisdom's essence without descending into vulgarity or cynicism.
Fornes's renowned play Fefu and Her Friends exemplifies her shift towards more realistic character portrayals and innovative staging. In this work, scenes occur in multiple rooms, requiring the audience to move to experience the unfolding drama, effectively underscoring themes of female interdependence and societal roles. Beverly Byers Pevitts perceives the play as a feminist exploration of women's relationships, reflecting on the constraints imposed by societal norms. Similarly, her plays Mud and The Conduct of Life address complex issues surrounding gender and power, often within domestic settings, as discussed in Lurana Donnels O'Malley's analysis of Fornes's focus on women's roles.
Fornes's work is noted for its emotional depth and its critique of social norms, seamlessly blending realism with allegory to explore universal themes. Critics like Sally Porterfield commend her for transforming universal experiences into compelling dramatic forms, while Stacy Wolf highlights her feminist reinterpretation of violence and gender. Despite some viewing her stylistic approach as challenging, her originality and influence on contemporary theater are widely acknowledged, as Steven Drukman observes.
The organic relationship between writing and directing in Fornes's plays creates a theater experience that is both literary and visual. This dynamic is further explored by Penny Farfan and Diane Lynn Moroff, who examine her innovative approach. Despite her substantial contributions, the under-recognition of Fornes's work is a concern for many in the theater community, including playwrights like Lanford Wilson, who lament the lack of acknowledgment for her originality and impact.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Fornes, Maria Irene (Contemporary Literary Criticism)
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Seeing with Clarity: The Visions of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In the following interview, Fornes discusses her evolution as a playwright and director, emphasizing her transition from painting to playwriting, the influence of Method acting on her work, and her unique approach to character development and realism in theater.
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Pressing Clothes/Snapping Beans/Reading Books: Maria Irene Fornes's Women's Work
(summary)
In the following essay, O'Malley explores Fornes's representation of women's attitudes toward housework in Fefu and Her Friends, Mud, and The Conduct of Life, concluding that Fornes views housekeeping as a positive, ritualized act of “self-knowledge and love.”
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Re/Presenting Gender, Re/Presenting Violence: Feminism, Form and the Plays of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In the following essay, Wolf argues that the form, as well as the content, of Fornes's plays make possible a feminist interpretation of the violence that pervades much of her work. Wolf asserts that Fornes's plays “re-present violence in order to point to its gendered construction.”
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The State of Grace: Maria Irene Fornes at Sixty-Two
(summary)
In the following essay, Marranca observes that Fornes's plays explore the spiritual lives of women and the consequences of their various life-choices.
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Traces of Brecht in Maria Irene Fornes' Mud.
(summary)
In the following essay, Kiebuzinska discusses the influence of playwright and dramatist Bertolt Brecht on the feminist elements of Mud.
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Fornes's Odd Couple: Oscar and Bertha at the Magic Theatre
(summary)
In the following essay, Cummings critiques a 1992 Magic Theatre production of Oscar and Bertha, noting that Fornes's works present some of the most poignant and painful aspects of being human in an abstract, almost pure, form.
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Review of Enter the Night
(summary)
In the following review, Rabillard praises a 1993 New City Theater production of Enter the Night, asserting that the central theme of the play is the characters' desire to “ease one another's pain.”
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Crossing Cultures and Kinds: Maria Irene Fornes and the Performance of a Post-Modern Sublime
(summary)
In the following essay, Rabillard argues that Fornes's plays combine postmodern techniques of distancing the audience with dramatic scenes of emotional transcendence.
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The Starfish and the Strange Attractor: Myth, Science, and Theatre as Laboratory in Maria Irene Fornes's Mud.
(summary)
In the following essay, Gargano comments that Fornes's theatrical technique in Mud is analogous to ground-breaking developments in scientific theory. Gargano asserts that Fornes “uses the paradigm of the theatre as potential to demonstrate the inevitable connection between our art, our learning, and our social artifice.”
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Formalism and the Return to the Body: Stein's and Fornes's Aesthetic of Significant Form
(summary)
In the following essay, Koppen compares and contrasts the formal and aesthetic qualities of the dramatic works of Fornes and Gertrude Stein.
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Her Championship Season
(summary)
In the following essay, Shewey discusses the New York Signature Theatre Company's retrospective series on Fornes's plays, commenting that the playwright is “one of the best-kept secrets of the American theater.”
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Black Cats and Green Trees: The Art of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In the following essay, Porterfield discusses Fornes's theatrical technique and her work as a director of her own plays. Porterfield argues that Fornes's dominant thematic focus is “the search for truth, for wholeness, for understanding of our attempts to make sense out of a seemingly random existence.”
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Notes on Fornes (with Apologies to Susan Sontag)
(summary)
In the following essay, Drukman critiques the unique stylistic qualities of Fornes's plays, which make them both critically acclaimed and difficult to analyze.
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‘They are Well Together. Women are Not’: Productive Ambivalence and Female Hom(m)osociality in Fefu and Her Friends.
(summary)
In the following essay, Murray presents a critical discussion on the themes of female friendship and female desire in Fefu and Her Friends.
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Seeing with Clarity: The Visions of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
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Fornes, Maria Irene (Drama Criticism)
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I Write These Messages That Come
(summary)
In the following essay, the critic examines Maria Irene Fornes's unique writing process, highlighting her spontaneous method of capturing thoughts as they occur, the importance of colors and imagery in her creative work, and her approach to playwriting as a form of discovery and organic development without predefined theses or ideas.
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Overviews And General Studies
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The Real Life of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In the following essay, Marranea describes the essential characteristics of Fornes' drama, praising the "warm delicacy and grace that distinguish it from most of what is written today."
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A preface to Maria Irene Fornes: Plays
(summary)
In the following essay, Sontag extols Fornes' growth as a dramatist. "The plays," she states, "have always been about wisdom: what it means to be wise. They are getting wiser."
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The Madwoman in the Spotlight: Plays of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In this essay, Austin examines Fornes' use of the madwoman figure and the image of confinement on stage.
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Still Playing Games: Ideology and Performance in the Theater of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In the following essay, Worthen explores "the operation of the mise-en-scéne on the process of dramatic action" in Fornes' plays.
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Hen in a Foxhouse: The Absurdist Plays of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
In this essay, Zinman detects elements of the theater of the absurd in several of Fornes' plays.
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Early Plays, 1963-1968: Production, Experimentation, 'Learning the Ropes'
(summary)
Kent here explores Fornes' early development as a playwright.
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Palimpsests
(summary)
In the essay below, Moroff investigates the theatrical palimpsest in Fornes's theater, the simultaneous literary and visual texts that are theater.
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The Real Life of Maria Irene Fornes
(summary)
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Fefu And Her Friends
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Fefu and Her Friends
(summary)
In the following, which was first published in 1981, Pevitts reads Fefu and Her Friends as a feminist play, exploring basic feminist issues through the lives of contemporary women, despite the play being set in 1935. The structure and content of the play highlight women's relationships and needs for each other, contradicting the title character's belief that women need men for safety.
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Feminism, Metatheatricality, and Mise-enscène in Maria Irene Fornes's Fefu and Her Friends
(summary)
In the following essay, Farfan maintains that, for Fornes, there exists an "organic relationship" between the writing and the directing of her plays.
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Fefu and Her Friends
(summary)
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I Write These Messages That Come
(summary)
- Further Reading