NEW STAGE ADAPTATION OF JAMES JOYCE'S MASTERPIECE "FINNEGANS WAKE" NEXT
UP AT THE MEDICINE SHOW
MEDICINE SHOW THEATRE ENSEMBLE, one of NYC's longest-running
experimental theatres, is pleased to announce "FINNEGANS WAKE," a
new work for the theatre created from the classic modernist novel by
JAMES JOYCE ("The Dead"). Adapted and directed by Obie-Award
winning director BARBARA VANN with original music by CHRISTOPHER
McGLUMPHY, the show runs from March 25th-April 24th with an opening
scheduled for April 2nd at THE MEDICINE SHOW THEATRE, 549 West 52nd
St., 3rd Floor (between 10th and 11th Ave.).
Set in a Dublin pub, "Finnegan's Wake" is a boisterous,
mind-bending theatrical experience that traces one night in the life of
Finnegan, who dreams of primal guilt and is whirled into a comic
nightmare as family history and world history become one and the same.
The entire Finnegan clan--along with various denizens of the pub--live,
fight, drink, dream, assume the roles of mythic & historical figures,
and hope that their lives will eventually lead to some kind of
spiritual rebirth. Their stories are brought to life by an inventive
cast of 10, who act, chant, sing, dance, stomp and howl the piece. With
its juxtapositions of the elevated and the vulgar, "there's lots of
fun at Finnegans Wake."
Featured in the cast: Yascha Bilan, Irene Califano, Richard De
Domenico, Sarah Engelke, Mark Gering, John McConnel, Paul Murphy, Mike
Still, Colleen Quigley and Barbara Vann.
According to Vann, "Finnegans Wake" has haunted her for almost half
a century. "My very first encounter with this material goes back to
1958, when I wasa part of Abbey Theatre director Denis Johnston's
staging of 'Finnegans Wake' at Mount Holyoke College, which was
based on Mary Manning's free adaptation of the novel for the Poet's
Theatre of Cambridge. When I decided to tackle this project, I went
back and looked at those versions and found them a little too sanitized
to be true...to Joyce at least. They rearranged the material into
dramatic 'scenes' rather than following the flow of the original
novel. So I decided to keep the work in the order that Joyce wrote it,
which meant re-adapting the novel."
Written over the two decades before its original publication in 1939,
"Finnegans Wake" has impressed and confounded literary critics and
aficionados the world over with its use of over sixty languages and its
unique circular structure. Having tackled the longest day in literature
with his "Ulysses," James Joyce dealt with an even greater
challenge in his final work: the night. "A nocturnal state. . . .
That is what I want to convey: what goes on in a dream, during a
dream." Joyce believed that his "collideorscope" of a novel would
become clear to people if they would listen to its music.
MEDICINE SHOW THEATRE ENSEMBLE was founded in 1970 by Barbara Vann and
the late James Barbosa.The company is dedicated to offering creative
alternatives to conventional theatre by creating and presenting works
that experiment with language, music, movement, form and ideas. The
works are chosen to delight the mind, honor creativity, confound empty
convention, encourage active compassion and present the many facets of
the American experience within a global community.
The performance schedule for "FINNEGAN'S WAKE" is
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 7 PM (with the exception of
Sunday 4/17, which is at 4 PM, and Saturday 4/9, which is dark).
Tickets are $15 and are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444
or via the web at
www.smarttix.com. For more information, please log
onto the company's website at
www.MedicineShowTheatre.org.
====================================
Press Contact: Mark Cannistraro (EmpowerPR@aol.com)
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