Marina Carr

About Marina Carr

Marina is an award-winning playwright based in Dublin whose plays have been produced by The Abbey Theatre, The Gate, Druid, Landmark, The Royal Court, Wyndhams Theatre, The RSC, The Almeida, The Kiln, The MacCarter Theatre, San Diego Rep, and Milwaukee Rep, amongst others.

She has been translated into many languages and produced around the world.

She also wrote a new, contemporary translation of RIGOLETTO for Opera Theatre Company, which toured Ireland in 2015, and wrote an original oratorio MARY GORDON, as part of a commission for Wicklow County Council that brought together choirs from throughout County Wicklow with solo singers and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in November 2016.

Prizes include the Windham-Campbell Prize 2017 for her body of work, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the American/Ireland Fund Award, the E.M Forster Award From The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Macaulay Fellowship, and the Puterbaugh Fellowship. She is a member of Aosdána.

She has taught at Trinity College Dublin, Villanova, and Princeton. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Dublin City University.

She is published by The Gallery Press, Nick Hern Books, and Faber & Faber.

Theatre

    • Production
    • Company
    • Notes
    • MIRANDOLINA
    • Abbey Theatre / Teatro Stabile del Veneto
    • Inspired by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s masterpiece, La Locandiera (1753).
      Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin
      Italian tour (February – March 2026); Abbey Theatre production (28 Aug – 5 Sept 2026)
    • THE BOY
    • Abbey Theatre Production
    • Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin
      ★★★★ “Carr gives her characters freedom to expand” The Guardian
      ★★★★ “tremendous reworking of Sophocles’ Theban plays” The Irish Times
      “Carr’s witty contemporary take ensures memorable lines leap out from the stage.” Irish Independent
    • THE MAP OF ARGENTINA
    • Decadent Theatre Company and Galway Arts Centre
    • Directed by Andrew Flynn
      ★★★★ 'A startling new play... a bravura production' The Irish Times
      ★★★★ 'A masterclass of ensemble dramatic writing' Irish Examiner
    • AUDREY OR SORROW
    • The Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin ★★★★ 'All facets of Marina Carr’s precious mineral are on display in this startling new play' -The Irish Times
    • GIRL ON ALTAR
    • Kiln Theatre
    • Directed by Annabelle Comyn "Bracingly good reworking of Greek myth is mesmerising… Marina Carr’s examination of the Trojan War through women’s eyes is gripping"– The Evening Standard - ★★★★
    • IGIRL
    • The Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin “Marina Carr’s latest play is a densely woven tapestry that illuminates at every level” – The Times - ★★★★
    • TO THE LIGHTHOUSE
    • Hatch Theatre Company / Everyman / Pavilion Theatre
    • Directed by Annabelle Comyn ★★★★★ The Arts Review ★★★★ - The Guardian
    • GILGAMESH
    • Galway 2020 Commission
    • Directed by Noeline Kavanagh
    • BLOOD WEDDING
    • The Young Vic, London
    • Directed by Yaël Farber ★★★★ - The Guardian
    • ANNA KARENINA
    • Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Wayne Jordan "Riveting… She lays her own mark upon the material, too, bringing a mordant wit to the characters’ bleak situations" – The Irish Times – ★★★★ "Marina Carr makes Leo Tolstoy’s novel her own in this brilliant adaptation that squarely places the tragic love story at the centre of human experience... don't miss it"– The Irish Independent
    • MARY GORDON
    • National Concert Hall
    • An oratorio with Music by Brian Irvine and Neil Martin
    • HECUBA
    • RSC
    • Directed by Erica Whyman "A beautifully terrifying, almost uncannily elegant play" –  The Independent – ★★★★ "The violence lies in Carr’s language, shocking and extraordinarily vivid: we almost hear the buzzing of carrion flies, smell the stench of carnage." – The Times – ★★★★ "This is a play about persuasion and Carr has imbued the characters’ rhetoric with passion and a brisk immediacy" –  The Evening Standard – ★★★★
    • RIGOLETTO
    • Opera Theatre Company, Irish National Tour
    • New contemporary translation of Verdi’s opera Directed by Selina Cartmell
    • 16 POSSIBLE GLIMPSES
    • The Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Wayne Jordan
    • PHAEDRA BACKWARDS
    • McCarter Theatre, Princeton
    • Directed by Emily Mann
    • THE GIANT BLUE HAND
    • Ark Theatre Commission
    • Directed by Selina Cartmell
    • IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST: QUARTET
    • Traverse
    • Directed by Vicky Featherstone
    • MARBLE
    • Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Jeremy Herrin
    • THE CORDELIA DREAM
    • RSC at Wilton's Music Hall
    • Directed by Selina Cartmell
    • WOMAN AND SCARECROW
    • Royal Court Theatre
    • Directed by Ramin Gray Starring Fiona Shaw and Brid Brennan
    • ARIEL
    • Abbey Theatre, Dublin
    • Directed by Conal Morrison
    • ON RAFTERY’S HILL
    • Town Hall Theatre Galway; Royal Court Theatre Downstairs; Kennedy Center Washington DC
    • Commission from Druid Theatre Company Directed by Garry Hynes
    • THE MAI
    • Peacock Theatre, Dublin
    • Winner of Best New Irish Play at Dublin Theatre Festival 1994 Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1995 McCarter Theatre, Princeton 1996 Tricycle Theatre, London 1997
    • LOW IN THE DARK
    • Projects Arts Centre, Dublin
    • ULLALOO
    • Rehearsed reading
    • Dublin Theatre Festival 1989 Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1991
    • ★ Prominent Revivals ★
    • WOMAN AND SCARECROW
    • Irish Repertory Theater, New York
    • Directed by Ciaran O’Reilly
    • ON RAFTERY’S HILL
    • Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin “striking and pummelling production…Marina Carr’s bleak topical tragedy is like the fresh jolt of a recurring nightmare” - The Irish Times - ★★★★
    • PORTIA COUGHLAN
    • The Abbey Theatre
    • Directed by Caroline Byrne. Starring Denise Gough. “Powerful… devastatingly honest.” – The Sunday Times - ★★★★ “This unforgettable story remains searing in its relevance” – The Irish Times - ★★★★
    • PORTIA COUGHLAN
    • Royal Court Theatre 1996
    • Winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award
    • BY THE BOG OF CATS
    • Abbey Theatre revival
    • Directed by Selina Cartmell
    • BY THE BOG OF CATS
    • Wyndham’s Theatre
    • Directed by Dominic Cooke Starring Holly Hunter
    • BY THE BOG OF CATS
    • Abbey Theatre
    • Commission from the Abbey Theatre Directed by Patrick Mason