Margaret McCarthy

Margaret McCarthy

Margaret McCarthy comes to playwriting through her fascination with mythology, and theatre as the first place we relive our stories. She sees “the hero’s journey” in contemporary, everyday life; in the heroes and heroines of legend she sees the struggles of the average human being. The female characters of myth are a continuing source of inspiration for her creative work, giving them voice to tell their own...
Margaret McCarthy comes to playwriting through her fascination with mythology, and theatre as the first place we relive our stories. She sees “the hero’s journey” in contemporary, everyday life; in the heroes and heroines of legend she sees the struggles of the average human being. The female characters of myth are a continuing source of inspiration for her creative work, giving them voice to tell their own story. Her goals: putting women - younger and older - on the stage in great, meaty roles; creating great female characters who carry women’s wisdom. McCarthy understands the stage as the original home for poetry – and performance as its natural medium. Her heightened language monologues use the power of spoken word to spice colloquial dialogue.

McCarthy’s background as a working photographer influences her way of telling stories; her work strives to meld the pleasures of the ear and the eye.

THE SACRIFICIAL KING: A PLAY FOR JOHN LENNON was given a New York City production by The World 3 Theatre Company, preceded by staged readings at The English Speaking Union in New York City and Duke University, N.C. In both 2016 and 2009, the young theatre artists of Duxbury High School’s Thespian Troup chose this script (of any) to perform as their entry to The Boston Globe’s Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) Festival. Their productions at Boston’s John Hancock Theatre took festival awards.

DEIRDRE RETROGRADE, based on the heroine of Irish myth, resulted from McCarthy’s ongoing involvement with the literature of women in myth. The play was read at La Mama Theatre, NYC, as part of its Experiments Reading Series; it was part of Dreamcatcher Entertainment’s Talent On Tap Reading Series.

JULY IN HADES is part of the Theatre 2020 Project Archive at the Harry Ransom Center, U. of Texas.

Her poetry collection NOTEBOOKS FROM MYSTERY SCHOOL (Finishing Line Press, 2015) was a New Women’s Voices Award finalist.

Her work has been performed in programs by Poetic Theatre Productions, NYC, The English Speaking Union of New York, The Hudson Valley Writers Association, and Irish American Writers and Artists (IAW&A) monthly salons at The Cell Theatre, NYC.

McCarthy's poetry / poetic monologues has appeared in numerous literary magazines, journals and anthlogies, including: The Pagan Muse:Poems of Ritual and Inspiration, Working Papers in Irish Studies, Cyphers Magazine (Ireland), The Albero Project (Italy,) Poetry New Zealand, Gargoyle Magazine, HIV HERE AND NOW On-Line Poetry Project, Home Planet News, Shaking Like A Mountain: On line Literature about Contemporary Music, California State Poetry Society Quarterly, Tiny Seed Journal, O!!ZONE, Xanadu, Caprice , Matrix, The Poet, Poets and Peace International to name a few. McCarthy has also reviewed for Groundswell Magazine, New Directions for Women and The Chiron Review.

She has been a guest artist in residence at The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Ragdale Foundation and The Hambidge Center for the Arts & Sciences, all of which have awarded her writing fellowships.

She is a member of The Dramatists Guild, PEN America and The Authors Guild. Her plays can be found on The New Play Exchange. www.newplayexchange.org/users/15101/margaret-mccarthy


Plays

  • JULY IN HADES
    A drama/comedy about Alzheimer’s, aging, dying, the afterlife, and the relationship between mothers, daughters and grandmothers. In a current day nursing home, goddesses and gods mix it up with contemporary human mortals.

    After the death of her mother, July searches for answers around her loss. In a role reversal of the classic myth, the daughter finds herself journeying to the underworld, going...
    A drama/comedy about Alzheimer’s, aging, dying, the afterlife, and the relationship between mothers, daughters and grandmothers. In a current day nursing home, goddesses and gods mix it up with contemporary human mortals.

    After the death of her mother, July searches for answers around her loss. In a role reversal of the classic myth, the daughter finds herself journeying to the underworld, going “to Hell and back” to find her mother. Can she insure her mother’s safe passage / transition? Can July find her own way out of Hades? Will she lose herself in Pluto’s underworld -- or an underworld of her own making?

    The mother-daughter bond is explored, contrasting July and her mother, Bea, alongside the goddesses Persephone and Demeter. How do their bonds cut cross generations and time? Can mending our bonds help guide us in this dire moment of climate crisis on planet earth? The action pivots around the wisdom of Grandmother Hecate. Can the “ancient” world still teach us anything? Are gods and goddesses really any smarter than mortals?

    In a current day nursing home, those gods and goddesses step in and out of our own workaday world; contemporary humans interact with them -- sometimes recognizing them, sometimes not -– in strange, surprising and humorous encounters.

  • DEIRDRE RETROGRADE
    Four modern day Wiccan’s cast their ritual circle; time slips. Together, they find themselves re-living a story they had long forgotten in this play about beauty and power, learning and forgiveness.

    Can a prophecy be outwitted? How can we escape society’s confines, its dictates on who and what we must be? How many times must we repeat our mistakes before we learn? Given a “do-over” by time...
    Four modern day Wiccan’s cast their ritual circle; time slips. Together, they find themselves re-living a story they had long forgotten in this play about beauty and power, learning and forgiveness.

    Can a prophecy be outwitted? How can we escape society’s confines, its dictates on who and what we must be? How many times must we repeat our mistakes before we learn? Given a “do-over” by time itself, why is it still so hard to forgive each other?

    A witch. A king. A prophecy. An elopement. Revenge. Betrayal. Magic. The power of poetry. These elements simmer and boil over in the cauldron that is Deirdre’s story.

    Deirdre, the frustrated beauty of Irish myth, defies the prophecy made about her at birth and takes charge of her own life. With humor and pathos, this secluded adolescent “finds her voice”. She awakens to life, love and her own creative power by finding her own words, using them as magic language -- poetry as spell-casting.

    Levorcham, the female Druid and witch, is charged with raising Deirdre in seclusion. She acts as Deirdre’s spiritual guide, educating her in the craft of magic. As Levorcham invites us into the circle she casts, the events in the play happen both “in and out of time”, a kind of time-travel.

    Defying efforts to control her, Deirdre forces the warrior, Nye, to run off with her by placing him under her magic oath. They are pursed across continents by Conchobor, the King she was promised to, who seems to relent and forgive, only to betray them.

    Springing from Levorcham’s cauldron, these characters from ancient Irish myth find themselves meeting again. How many times must they re-live their story to understand the forces that still bind them? They struggle with tests: independence versus duty, jealousy versus unconditional love, revenge versus forgiveness. They know they are being tested; does that help them choose more wisely? Are their actions driven by their own free will or by fate?

    Guided by her intuition, this is the story of Deirdre’s self-actualization and autonomy, even when her fortunes turn. A classic Celtic romance in the genre of Tristan and Isolde, Deirdre’s story goes much further: it celebrates the female spirit as a driving, creative force, a harbinger of change that brings the love and wisdom we seek.



  • THE SACRIFICIAL KING: A PLAY FOR JOHN LENNON / Alternate working title: IN MY LIFE
    This play about art, creativity and imagination parallels scenes from the life of John Lennon and a teen girl who is a Beatle fan and an aspiring young artist herself. As she comes of age during that explosive era, the teen daughter’s idealism clashes with her working class mother’s common sense realism. Amidst the social and political turbulence of the time, both artists find family expectations and loyalty...
    This play about art, creativity and imagination parallels scenes from the life of John Lennon and a teen girl who is a Beatle fan and an aspiring young artist herself. As she comes of age during that explosive era, the teen daughter’s idealism clashes with her working class mother’s common sense realism. Amidst the social and political turbulence of the time, both artists find family expectations and loyalty to best friends test the creative paths they must follow. Ultimately, both must confront what fame, or its lack, means to them. Does fame create an aura of obscene ownership? Was it ever different? The play’s over-riding question: What in our nature causes us to build up and then tear down our heroes? This ancient part of the human psyche - our need to "scapegoat" - is explored as it’s acted out in our own contemporary culture.

Recommended by Margaret McCarthy

  • ALICE IN BLACK AND WHITE (full length)
    27 Nov. 2023
    I saw the 2017 production and loved this play. Alice's story is heartbreaking; her art, her photographs, radiant. With masterful writing, Robin Rice brings us the life and times of this important female artist.