The Indeterminate Body: Low in the Dark

Abstract

This chapter ‘The Indeterminate Body’ considers Low in the Dark by Marina Carr as a performance of gender in Irish theatre. Low in the Dark is unique among the plays considered in detail here, as it was written by a female playwright, and the implications of this are considered in the second section of this chapter. Carr’s later work has had a higher production profile but Low in the Dark stages the body, and gender, in a way that sets it apart from her other work, and questions the performance of gender in its form as well as content, through characters such Bender, Binder and Curtains. Low in the Dark was first staged in 1989 and the last section of this chapter considers the roles of documentation and publication in the recording of the body in performance, with reference to other Carr plays Ullaloo (1991), Meat and Salt (2003) and Woman and Scarecrow (2006).

Even the Good Guy dressed like a robber, so if the worst came to the worst he could arrest himself. Everyone was interchangeable.

(Carr Carr Plays 1: ix)