Cyclops

Chris O'Rourke
57 minutes ago
3 min read

Liam Hourican, Jim Roche and Danny Kehoe in Cyclops. Image, Al Craig

****

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king. Not because he sees the truth, but because he half sees truth. James Joyce's one eyed Citizen from The Cyclops chapter of Ulysses, a belligerent explosion of half truths, quarter lies and all prejudice. A bellicose, persecuted nationalist out to persecute other persecuted souls. In Volta Theatre's stirring Cyclops, Leopold Bloom's encounter with the eye patched Citizen in a bar on Little Britain Street is given vivid life. Running thirty five minutes, Cyclops delivers condensed, compact theatre whose dazzling inventiveness hits with the force of a well aimed punch.

Liam Hourican in Cyclops. Image, Al Craig

Initially it's hard to be sure as Feilimidh Nunan on piano and violin, and Conor Shiels on clarinet add musical accents. Part period music, part playfulness, the score reeks of a Barry Fitzgerald, Michaeleen Óge Oirishness at times rather than Joyce’s Blazes Moylan. Costumes and mannerism also ease towards cliched Dublinese. But director Liam Hourican, compelling as the scene’s Narrator, knows exactly what he's doing. Music referencing Joyce’s love of song, layering the script's rich complexity, its shifting moods, contrasting themes, as well as facilitating interludes and transitions between inner and outer, humour and drama, thought and myth, now and other. A terrific cast under Hourican’s direction delivering top drawer performances, with Colm Maher's honed lights complimenting it all. Danny Kehoe’s trouble stirring Hynes, Jo Dow’s dull, bowler hatted Bloom both terrifically realised. Jim Roche’s Citizen stealing the show by setting its temperature then cranking up the heat up. A legend in his own mind, Roche’s Citizen delivers outbursts of dog smacking, impassioned vitriol worth the price of admission alone. Yet the real star is Hourican, who transforms the space, text and performances into something richly layered and endlessly impressive. A versatile Damien Devaney rounding out a terrific cast with a clutch of terrific performances.

Jo Dow and Jim Roche in Cyclops. Image, Al Craig

That said, Cyclops still suffers the bane of adaptations. If performances ensure Joyce's complex text is made far more accessible and engaging, Cyclops still delivers more to those familiar with the novel. Who understand the dust blown, historical and mythical references, or the consequences of its plot devices and characters, like the racehorse tip or Bloom’s sexual predilections. If music played live is defined by playfulness, it occasionally overplays it hand. Randy Newman's You've Got A Friend In Me tipping over from Joycean period Modernism into self-conscious, show-off post-modernism, undermining its charm.

Damien Devaney, Liam Hourican, Jim Roche and Danny Kehoe in Cyclops. Image, Al Craig

Whilst the uncomfortable confrontation between the Wandering Jew and the bigoted Nationalist taps into current debates, it does so without offering easy answers. Bloom might be the moral hero, but he’s annoyingly dull. The Citizen and his cohort might be arrogance personified, but they’re a passionate community of life. Reason and mythologising might collide, but there subtleties that say neither is the whole cultural or social story. Not even half of it. Which is why Cyclops lands with a punch. That, along with top class direction and excellent performances. In the coming days you will be saturated with all things Joyce as Bloomsday approaches . The good, the bad and the ugly spoiling you for choice. On the evidence of Cyclops, you cannot go wrong choosing any of Volta Theatre’s Bloomsday Productions, including Telemachus at Martello Tower, and the adaptation of three Dubliners short stories at Smock Alley. Indeed, on the evidence of Cyclops alone, Volta Theatre are well in their way to becoming the pre-eminent interpreters of Joyce for stage. Cyclops a joy for Joyceans and non-Joyceans alike.