Exiles
Saw Joyce's Exiles @ the National Theatre last night - second night, tickets for £10 - it was well worth joining. This is the first production in the UK for 30-odd years, and the play has generally been (unfairly) slated since its first production.
It was written before Ulysses, and at time you can see the nascent wordplay and love of language he was to explore in his later works, but the play focusses much more on the psychological dimension of relationships, and specifically the roles of freedom and infidelity - there are a great many echoes of Joyce's own life and his relationship with his (younger, less educated) wife within, and also, tangentially a lot of the more general social issues and concerns within early 20th century Ireland - the role of Catholicism, intellectual life, nationalism, notions of identity for the educated, English-speaking middle class. The influence of Ibsen is also clear in terms of the theme and its treatment (and the length of the play - 2h55 with interval).
It was written before Ulysses, and at time you can see the nascent wordplay and love of language he was to explore in his later works, but the play focusses much more on the psychological dimension of relationships, and specifically the roles of freedom and infidelity - there are a great many echoes of Joyce's own life and his relationship with his (younger, less educated) wife within, and also, tangentially a lot of the more general social issues and concerns within early 20th century Ireland - the role of Catholicism, intellectual life, nationalism, notions of identity for the educated, English-speaking middle class. The influence of Ibsen is also clear in terms of the theme and its treatment (and the length of the play - 2h55 with interval).
posted by lukeski at 1:04 pm
2 Comments:
Sounds like a good watch.
ABER, more importantly, a massive thank you for the music. You angel. I actually got it a couple of days ago, but we've had guests who have just left, so am only managing politeness now. And I DO recognise plenty - OK, some - of the songs and both the Russian and I love it. (I'm going to go and put it on right now.)
Excellent, I'm pleased you enjoy it - the second CD was partially designed to pander to my older, more homosexual fans...
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