The McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ, continues it's season with the American Premiere of The Mai, winner of the 1994 Dublin Theatre Festival Best New Irish Play Award, by Irish playwright Marina Carr. The Mai begins previews November 4, and runs through November 24.

The play is set in a lakehouse in western Ireland, where a daughter, two grumpy sisters, two eccentric aunts, and an old, opium-smoking grandmother gather to advise, console, condemn, and reminisce with the title character, whose philandering husband has returned after an absence of many years.

The title character is named after a mythological Irish mother who destroyed her own young.

The production stars Myra Carter (Three Tall Women) and Katherine Borowitz (film The World According to Garp) and is directed by McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann.

One of the actors is a native of Dublin. Others are working with a dialect coach on the Irish accent. Mann was quoted in a recent McCarter Newsletter saying, "The first time I read The Mai, I absolutely fell in love with it. . .It's so rare to read a play that you can't get out of your mind. I have never before seen characters like Carr's. I just knew I had to direct this script."

McCarter Press Rep Dan Bauer told Playbill On-Line that New York artistic directors and producers are coming to see the play.

Tickets range from $25-34, and are available by calling the McCarter Theatre Box Office, (609) 683-8000.

--By Blair Glaser