Tag Archives: maenad

Cast, News, Supporting Cast, Supporting Characters

Vampires and Orgies and a Maenad…Oh My!

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“…Just another day at the office” says Michelle Forbes, better known to Trubies as Maryann the Maenad, when describing how she eventually became accustomed to filming those wild orgy scenes in Season 2. Forbes admits that for someone as “shy as [herself]”, the sex scenes were “a bit daunting” at first but became quite routine after a while.

Forbes acknowledges that vampire mythology is “titillating” but credits True Blood’s writers for considering vampires “in a very real way” that is “emotional and grounded”. She praises them for looking at vampires from another perspective and turning the traditional view “on its head”.

Despite or, perhaps, in spite her shyness, Forbes seems to have no problem bringing the wicked Maryann to life in the midst of such debauchery and rauchiness!

SOURCE:  Digitalspy.com

(Photo credit:  HBO Inc.)

News, Supporting Characters

Maryann Forrester: Mysterious, Mad, Maenad

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Maryann prepares a Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes) is a charming yet deadly supernatural creature called a MAENAD in the HBO Series, True Blood, which is based on the best-selling Sookie Stackhouse series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Maryann makes her first appearance in the  season one episode of True Blood, “To Love is to Bury”.  She arrives in town as a sort of Social Worker for hard luck cases whom she rescues at various low points in their lives and brings them to live with her. Maryann’s most recent acquisition? Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), the new bartender at Merlotte’s and the best friend of female lead character, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin).  At the same time, on the way to Shreveport with boyfriend Vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), Sookie is attacked in the woods by something with the head of a bull and poisonous claws and must endure a painful procedure by an odd doctor in order to save her life.

Maryann’s Enigmatic History in True Blood:

Not much is revealed about Maryann when she briefly appears in the late episodes of season one, except that Maryann seems to share a secret history with Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) the owner of the local watering hole, aptly named, “Merlotte’s”.  This history is further explored through a subsequent episode where we learn that the two had a brief affair when Sam was just 17  -and it didn’t end well.  We also come to find that Maryann not only knows about Sam’s shape shifting abilities but that she has the power to turn him into anything whenever she chooses.

Maryann coddles her new “project” Tara and plays into all the untended emotional scares left by her awful childhood and her alcoholic mother Lettie Mae (Adina Porter).  Soon, Tara discovers that Maryann likes to throw lavish parties. During which, unbeknownst to Tara and the other guests, Maryann likes to steal away and perform ritualistic chants beckoning her God, which also happens to make her entire body vibrate like a cheap massage chair.

“Lo Lo Bromios, Lo Lo Dendrites, Lo Lo Eleutherios, Lo Lo Enorches, Lo Lo Bacchus”

Unfortunately, this ritual seems to turn the partygoers into ebony-eyed, hedonistic “zombies” whose actions are driven mysteriously by reckless abandon and debauchery (which Maryann seems to thrive on). After these parties no one seems to remember what happened, but they are certain they had a good time. Soon Tara and another resident at Casa d’Maryann – Tara’s new boyfriend “Eggs” (Mehcad Brooks) are completely enmeshed in Maryann’s world of Dionysian revelry. By now it’s clear that Maryann wants total control over Tara, Eggs and the entire town of Bon Temps and she’s going to use Sam to get it.  After manipulating her way into living with Tara and Eggs at Sookie’s house while Sookie is out of town, Maryann’s master plan becomes clearer. She is going to sacrifice Sam Merlotte to her God known only as “The God Who Comes”… but first she has to find him.

The dénouement – Maryann’s Victory Lap or Crashing Demise?

It’s not long before Maryann has the whole town under her spell … literally.  She has indeed taken control of the minds and bodies of almost everyone in Bon Temps. Maryann now has an army of devout if not completely hypnotized followers to do her bidding. Her orders?

“Find Sam Merlotte and bring him to me”.

At the same time, Sookie, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) and Bill arrive back in Bon Temps after dealing with their own supernatural problems in Dallas. They find the town trashed and in total chaos. After hearing there’s a mob waiting for Sam at Merlotte’s Jason takes off planning a “Call of Duty” rescue while Sookie and Bill take off to locate Tara. When they get to Sookie’s house they find a strange huge horn statue made out of raw meat and fauna on the front lawn. When Sookie and Bill enter the house they see it has been completely transformed into a different dwelling – only to be confronted by Maryann claiming the house is now hers. When Maryann starts to attack Sookie, Bill attacks and bites her and is subsequently poisoned by her blood, forcing him to jump back, vomiting and retching with pain. But Maryann soon finds out that she might be in store for something she wasn’t expecting in our heroine, Sookie Stackhouse.  Faced with Maryann’s escalating threats and Bill’s debilitated state, a furious Sookie pushes Maryann’s face away from hers.  To everyone’s surprise a powerful energy expels from Sookie’s hand and temporarily forces Maryann to back off. Maryann is amazed and curiously delighted in this display and watches Bill and Sookie leave while pondering out loud “what are you?”

Meanwhile, Sam is tricked by zombified waitress Arlene (Carrie Preston) to come to Merlotte’s where unbeknownst to him, the town is laying in wait. Sam and local, disgraced, alcoholic detective Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) arrive and are ambushed by the frenzied mob and barely escape, by locking themselves in the Merlotte’s freezer. Eventually, with the help of an un-possessed Jason Stackhouse (Sookie’s hunky but vapid brother) they escape twice, the last time with an assist by Andy Bellefleur. It seems Jason and Andy are unaffected by Maryann’s trance most likely because they were out of town when Maryann “zotzed” the Bon Temps townsfolk with her funky magic.

Sookie and Bill hear word that Tara has been snatched from Maryann’s clutches by her cousin Lafayette (Nelson Ellis) and her rehabilitated mother Lettie Mae (Adina Porter) and is the unwilling participant in an ineffectual “intervention”. They need help and fast. Sookie and Bill join forces to simultaneously “glamour” and read Tara’s thoughts which both snaps Tara out of her possession and fills Sookie and Bill in on what’s been going on while they were away.

Bill tells Sookie he now believes he knows what Maryann is:

a Maenad, literally meaning “raving ones” an immortal follower of the God Dionysus that causes and feeds on chaos and all things indulgent.

Bill believes that he might know someone who knows how to defeat her. He leaves at Vampire speed and discover he’s come to meet with, the heretofore unknown, Queen of Louisiana (Evan Rachel Wood).

Will Bill be able to use the information from Queen Sophie Ann to save Bon Temps and Sam?  Will Maryann’s “God” come to Bon Temps and if so what will he do?  What was that power that emanated from Sookie’s hand that shocked Maryann?  Hopefully, at least some of these questions will be answered in the season finale of True Blood airing September 13th.  So get your bottles of Tru Blood ready!

(Photo credit: HBO)

Interviews, Season 2 News, Supporting Cast, Supporting Characters

Michelle Forbes Reflects on Maryann with Black Book Magazine

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michelleforbesWhen Maryann entered the scene on “True Blood” at the end of Season one, none of us could have predicted the chaos she would create. Played to chilling perfection by Michelle Forbes, Maryann is at once creative and destructive, poised and lunatic.

Anyone who has seen Forbes‘ previous work would probably be surprised by her turn as the hedonistic Maenad on “True Blood.” Whether she was portraying Lynne Kresge on “24,” Admiral Cain on “Battlestar Galactica,” or Kate on “In Treatment,” Michelle Forbes always brought great gravitas to her characters. But in “True Blood,” she plays someone who has no restraint and exhibits extreme emotions from every end of the spectrum.

That is probably why she accepted the role. As she tells Black Book Magazine in a recent interview, Maryann has been the most fun she’s ever had at work.

When asked how she adjusted to playing such a drastically different character, Michelle responded:

“[Maryann] tends to laugh at all the things that would fill the rest of us with terror. Initially it was suffocating to sit in her expansiveness. Most of us are led by fear or guilt or sorrow. She’s absolutely fearless. Then it became the most fun game in the world.”

She found Maryann to be so liberating; it was her job to go around causing mischief, while wearing evening dresses. Because it was such a departure from the intense work she usually does, she says that “it was nice to shake it off and get dirty and dance a little.”

Even though Alan Ball told her something of the Greek mythology that would come to explain who Maryann is, Michelle says that the character is still a mystery to her. What she does stand by is that Maryann is not evil:

“I do believe that she’s a character that’s all about perspective. If you think that this is an immortal being. She’s been around since the beginning of time. She’s lived in certain periods of our humanity, where there were people who would sit and watch other men tear each other apart for sport. Children were sacrificed. It’s not unheard of in history. In her mind, she’s seen it all. I think what’s great about the storyline is that it challenges our belief system. You and I can sit here in 2009 and say it’s outrageous that someone would sacrifice humans. My belief system, as a vegetarian, can’t believe that animals are being sacrificed. I stand by that in Maryann’s mind, there’s nothing malevolent. She has a different way of looking at the world.”

A different way of looking at the world that includes cutting up people’s hearts into a hunter’s souffle. Of that scene, Michelle says that her cooking skills are so bad that she had to take a flambe lesson to do it right. One of the things she loves about Maryann is her duality:

“That primal, feral wild-child side of her. Then this other side. That’s domestic and loves arranging flowers and fruit and the spread of food. And loves to dig in the dirt.”

When discussing the show in general, Michelle is effusive in praise of her fellow actors and of the writers for telling such complex, beautiful stories. She relates to all of the characters on different levels. The way she talks about “True Blood,” you can tell that she is a huge fan, just like the rest of us and she found it a joy to work on the show. That amazing experience she had is shared by us all in watching Maryann’s storyline evolve over the course of Season two. Here at the end, it has pulled every single character into it somehow. The resolution promises to blow us all away!

SOURCE: blackbookmag.com

(Photo credit: HBO, Inc.)

Character Analysis, Characters, Editorial, Season 2, Season 2 News, Sookie Stackhouse, Tara Thornton

Is Maryann A Maenad?

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Greek Mythology defines Maenads as the female followers of Dionysus.  A literal translation of the name means “raving ones” In Wikipedia the Maenads are said to be inspired by Dionysus “into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. In this state, they would lose all self control, begin shouting excitedly, engage in uncontrolled sexual behavior, and ritualistically hunt down and tear animals (and sometimes men and children) to pieces, devouring the raw flesh. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus, a long stick wrapped in ivy or vine leaves and tipped by a cluster of leaves, weave ivy-wreaths around their heads, and often handle or wear snakes.”
If you remember the first time we saw Maryann she was in the woods, naked carrying a staff which would be her “thyrsus”. In the previous two episodes of  True Blood we saw Maryann influence the patrons at Merlotte’s into an uncontrolled “frenzy” of dance, also putting a kind of aphrodisiac type spell over the crowd. Now the party at her house  in the third episode made the party at Merlotte’s seem tame.
In the following paragraph from the hermetic fellowship it describes many of Maryann’s personality traits.
“The Maenads are called nurses and foster mothers — they not only nurse and mother the young God (referring to Dionysus), but young animals in the forest as well.
They have the power to make the Earth bloom and the wild animals come to them.”
The same document also lists the power of maenads as such:
· To awaken the God
·    To run with the God
·    To share His attributes
·    To tame wild things by nursing them
·    To call forth water and wine and milk and honey from the Earth
·    To fight and not be harmed
·    To destroy
·    To prophesy
We have seen the nurturing side of  Maryann in her relationship to Tara and Eggs. These are two people who were strays of society to some degree, we learned Eggs was homeless and Tara never had a mother who was emotionally there for her needs, she was left her entire life to fend for herself then re-abandoned when her mother saw herself as “saved”.  We also saw Maryann‘s interaction (which more seemed like communication) with the pig at her house. Briefly we saw a picture at her pool which showed Pan with his human lover, maenads were known to be lovers of Pan and the Satyr which is described as a half man half goat creature.

The Question is why would she attack Sookie? Also why would she have killed Ms. Jeanette? The two things these women have in common is Tara. As for Ms. Jeanette I feel  Maryann believes she was avenging Tara , in her confrontation with Tara’s mother she may have not physically ripped Tara’s mother’s heart out but her words were meant to.  I am sure their is a whole other reason for her attack on Sookie we will have to watch more to find out(I love and HATE  that everything in this show is a cliffhanger.)

And watch out Tara this women may be nurturing when you are on her good side,the other side well  NOT so good.

To read more on Maenads and Dionysus information is available from the following sources

hermeticfellowship.org

meanad on wikipedia

Dionysus on wikipedia

(photo credit: HBO inc.)