Described by its author as a "play in 17 scenes," Mud tells the story of a twenty-something woman called Mae. Mae is poorly educated and is illiterate, but she is spunky and exceptionally hard-working. The trouble is: she is stuck in a toxic cycle which makes it hard for her to escape her conditions and create a better life for herself.
Mud is a story of female empowerment and how someone who doesn't have a lot to work with does something good with her life. Mud is also a feminist story. Its author, Maria Irene Fornes, escaped from Cuba in 1945 with a profound understanding of struggle - particularly the struggle of women, who were discriminated against for much of that country's history.
In 1960, Fornes became involved with the New York theater scene and started to write plays. In writing these plays, she drew upon her experiences and wrote about personal and social issues. She paid particular attention, however, on issues related to females and some of the challenges they faced in a male-dominated world. This holds true for Mud, which, as previously mentioned, details Mae's struggle to survive and thrive in a male-dominated house.
