Poetic Epic Transformed Into Stunning Sensory Experience
Begun soon after he completed Ulysses and published in 1939, James Joyce’s monumental and unconventional novel Finnegan’s Wake took seventeen long years to complete and has left scholars debating the ambiguities of every aspect of it ever since; its characters (particularly the Earwicker family, including the mother, Anna Livia Plurabelle or ALP), its plot, its language, its theme and more.
What is mostly agreed though, is the work has a dream-like quality and that it reflects a fluid, never-ending cycle. The last sentence of the book- ‘A way a lone a last a loved along the…’ ends abruptly, ie it is not completed, but instead flows back to begin the novel- ‘riverun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.’
Now, as Ireland’s Olwen Fouéré performs riverrun, her stunning adaptation of the final chapter of Finnegan’s Wake, Adelaide Festival audiences will feel the soul of the river flow over them in the production’s Australian Premiere. Fouéré embodies the voice of the river-‘Abhainn na Life’ in Irish, Anna Livia Plurabelle, life itself-as she dissolves into the great ocean of time.
The melding of Fouéré’s voice and physicality, together with Alma Kelliher’s score brings the musicality of Joyce’s novel to life in such a quietly profound performance and soundscape that a complete lockout occurs once each performance begins. No latecomers will be admitted.
Olwen Fouéré is a prolific actor, writer and theatre practitioner within mainstream theatre, visual arts, music, dance theatre and literature. Co-founder in the 1980’s, with composer Roger Doyle, of avant-garde theatre company Operating Theatre, she also established an artistic space in 2009 for developing her projects, naming it The Emergency Room.
Amongst many awards, Fouéré received the 2013 Irish Times Special Tribute Award for outstanding achievement and contribution to Irish Theatre. During the Edinburgh Fringe season of riverrun she was awarded the Stage Award for Acting Excellence and the Herald Archangel Award.
I asked Olwen Fouére what was it about James Joyce's poetic voice that moved her to create riverrun and having created the piece, did performing it add layers to or change her perception of that voice.
“I am no great reader of Joyce,” she said, “but I am a fan of Finnegans Wake and for a long time I had carried, at the back of my mind, the possibility of giving voice to all that wild language in performance. It pulled me like a seam of dark matter somewhere between energy and form, music and language.”
It seems it all began in Sydney in June 2011, when at a public event Fouéré read out the last page of Finnegans Wake, where Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP), in her guise as the river ‘Life’, dissolves into the ocean.
“Something happened during the reading,” she said, “as though millions of atoms were changing shape with the energy of the river approaching her death and transformation in the arms of the sea.”
Fouéré quoted the relevant text to me, the words that brought her to that crucial moment. “….Avelaval … Whish! A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, Far! End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlee, mememormee! Till thousends thee. The keys to…”
“By the end of the reading,” she said, “inspired by that moment of flight, a performance idea was taking shape : the river Liffey (Life) as all the rivers of the world, including our body’s bloodstream, a force of constant renewal, moving us forwards, towards the dawn. As with its source, riverrun never stands still. It changes all the time and with every audience.”
Olwen Fouéré’s tour de force performance of riverrun has been described by critics as: “bold, funny and eloquent drama…life-changing”-Telegraph UK, “Joyce made brilliantly manifest”-The Guardian UK, and “a physical performance of unforgettable intensity, beauty and power”- The Scotsman.
Australia has much to anticipate from this Irish jewel.
Lesley Reed
WHEN: Thursday February 26-Saturday 28, 7.30 pm; Sunday March 1, 5pm; Monday March 2, 2 pm and 7.30 pm.
WHERE: Dunstan Playhouse, Festival Theatre.
BOOKINGS: adelaidefestival.com.au or BASS 131 246
Note: 1 hour 20 minutes. No interval. Latecomers not admitted.
Sydney Theatre Company also presents riverrun March 10-April 11, 2015.
Photo credit: Cilm hogan, Adelaide Festival of Arts.
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