Dancing in the Wake
Deirdre Tarrant15/02/2012 10:57:00 a.m.
Dancing in the Wake, The Museum Art Hotel. February 12, Reviewed by Deirdre Tarrant.
THIS NEW PLAY was written by Jan Bolwell and based on the life of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of writer, James Joyce and the struggle she has living in the shadow/wake of her famous and notorious father.
The sumptuous and perfect Tambarini Room at the Museum Art Hotel was a venue simply asking for this play to happen there. The use of interesting and appropriate music was excellent also.
Lucia a dancer, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her mid twenties. Three players take us through an episodic series of scenes that unfold stages of her life, her infatuation for Samuel Beckett, Beckett’s own relationship with both father and daughter, the tension between Nora Barnacle and James Joyce as parents with conflicting views on their children and the role of parenting.
Contrasts and contradictions abound and the underlying conflict between sex and the Catholic religion, between dreams and duty, between driving and being driven all end tragically for Lucia.
Effective costuming that suggests time, place and style is used and Sacha Copland as the young Lucia pursuing a career and happiness as a dancer at a time when both were unacceptable uses a range of dance styles well and with technical clarity. Her heartbreak was inevitable and I would have been more hooked in if there had been more variety and some engaging joy in her delivery for the story to unfold from?
As a dancer who trained with the legendary Isadora Duncan, worked for show madam Josephine Baker in her La Revue Negre and who carries the story of her relationships with father, mother and lover in her dancing I wanted more emotional involvement and a range of expression to play out?
A tendency to over-act and over state the case ran through the performance of both women, but John Smyth was excellently pitched as were as all the male roles. Costume changes, scarves, coats and glasses as well as accent changes delivered assured male characters with their lines clearly drawn (and a bit of smart footed dancing in there too!)
Smyth was James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Carl Jung and a New York journalist and to his credit I came away with clear pictures in my mind of each of these men. Jan Bolwell played Lucia Joyce and gave us the memories which were by turns magical and muddled as well as the strongly negative personality of Nora, mother, caregiver, wife, agent of distress and disapproval and a chronic worrier.
Dominant, demanding and deliciously irreverent by turns Bolwell relished her involvement in this well researched story of intriguing discoveries. Did the upbringing of Lucia in this family cause her illness? Was it inevitable? Who were the truly mad? This was a theatrical experience that posed questions, was fun and frightening and left us wanting to know more about the truth or not of the whole experience.
Voyeurism of the most satisfying kind and well worth a longer life, bravo.
THIS NEW PLAY was written by Jan Bolwell and based on the life of Lucia Joyce, the daughter of writer, James Joyce and the struggle she has living in the shadow/wake of her famous and notorious father.
The sumptuous and perfect Tambarini Room at the Museum Art Hotel was a venue simply asking for this play to happen there. The use of interesting and appropriate music was excellent also.
Lucia a dancer, was diagnosed with schizophrenia in her mid twenties. Three players take us through an episodic series of scenes that unfold stages of her life, her infatuation for Samuel Beckett, Beckett’s own relationship with both father and daughter, the tension between Nora Barnacle and James Joyce as parents with conflicting views on their children and the role of parenting.
Contrasts and contradictions abound and the underlying conflict between sex and the Catholic religion, between dreams and duty, between driving and being driven all end tragically for Lucia.
Effective costuming that suggests time, place and style is used and Sacha Copland as the young Lucia pursuing a career and happiness as a dancer at a time when both were unacceptable uses a range of dance styles well and with technical clarity. Her heartbreak was inevitable and I would have been more hooked in if there had been more variety and some engaging joy in her delivery for the story to unfold from?
As a dancer who trained with the legendary Isadora Duncan, worked for show madam Josephine Baker in her La Revue Negre and who carries the story of her relationships with father, mother and lover in her dancing I wanted more emotional involvement and a range of expression to play out?
A tendency to over-act and over state the case ran through the performance of both women, but John Smyth was excellently pitched as were as all the male roles. Costume changes, scarves, coats and glasses as well as accent changes delivered assured male characters with their lines clearly drawn (and a bit of smart footed dancing in there too!)
Smyth was James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Carl Jung and a New York journalist and to his credit I came away with clear pictures in my mind of each of these men. Jan Bolwell played Lucia Joyce and gave us the memories which were by turns magical and muddled as well as the strongly negative personality of Nora, mother, caregiver, wife, agent of distress and disapproval and a chronic worrier.
Dominant, demanding and deliciously irreverent by turns Bolwell relished her involvement in this well researched story of intriguing discoveries. Did the upbringing of Lucia in this family cause her illness? Was it inevitable? Who were the truly mad? This was a theatrical experience that posed questions, was fun and frightening and left us wanting to know more about the truth or not of the whole experience.
Voyeurism of the most satisfying kind and well worth a longer life, bravo.
