Mud: Poverty and Limitations to Progress Maung Phone Myat Tha College

Maria Irene Fornes was a renowned director, playwright, and a painter whose works have been a powerful influence in the development of Hispanic theater, among an ensemble of writers such as Luis Valdez. Furthermore, her creations have been an innovator of the avant garde theater, blending the absurd with the abstract. She was known to be involved intimately with her plays, contributing to the scenic and lighting design, among other creative roles. Echoing her skills as an artist, Fornes crafts her actors in interesting postures that consider the metaphorical and metaphysical depictions of her narratives; every prop, set piece, and movement contributes to her productions. Within the performance spaces of her theatrical laboratory, she crafts the intersection of culture and gender, as they come to serve as allegorical tropes. She uses her work to interrogate the potential and power of the relational, especially within the lives of women (Manora).

One such investigation of the feminine and masculine relationship is in the play Mud, an allegory for the plight of wisdom, order, and rationality. These progressive elements are depicted through the character Mae, as she is repressed by the masculine’s carnal desire for domination,...