Performativity of Gender in Marina Carr’s Low in the Dark

This paper discusses Marina Carr’s Low in the Dark primarily in relation to its concern with gender identity. Grounding my analysis in Judith Butler’s writing on gender and performance, I discuss how Carr explores these issues in both the form and the content of the play. By modeling the style and the structure on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Carr prepares the audience for the absurdist elements within the play, as her characters explore their gendered sides of the stage and engage in a series of absurd, abstract performances.  I demonstrate, then, how the exaggerated and unrealistic role playing illustrate Carr’s point about the arbitrariness and fluidity of gender roles, as well as the importance of performance in defining one’s gender. Therefore, the characters are liminal in the sense that they are neither men nor women but can oscillate between the two simply by donning a pair of heels or picking up a pair of knitting needles. I also argue that Carr explores the issue of gender performance through many conventions of theatre, displaying a postmodern self-awareness in the play‘s multiple meta-theatrical elements. Finally, I discuss the importance of language in the play, focusing specifically on the use of naming in demarcating gender status.