The James Joyce Centre on Friday, February 21st at 6.30pm welcomed another delightful performance of 18 Ballads from James Joyce’s Ulysses by Val O’Donnell.
This collection of new ballads, based on characters featured in James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, was published in 2024. The collection consists of eighteen ballads written by Val O’Donnell and set to airs of music which are referred to in Ulysses or in other works of James Joyce. The collection includes short quotes from Ulysses, a note on the music and suggestions for accessing the original sheet music and performances of the airs chosen for the ballads.
After an inaugural performance on October 8th 2024, the James Joyce Centre was honoured to host another.
About Val
Val O’Donnell has a connection with the theatre for over 50 years as an actor, director and adaptor of Irish literature.
In 2011, Val established The JoyceStagers theatre company to perform his adaptations from the works of James Joyce. The JoyceStagers have performed “The Funeral of Paddy Dignam,” adapted by Val from the 6th episode of Ulysses, annually on Bloomsday at Glasnevin Cemetary. They have also performed his adaptations from Episodes 8, 12, and 16 at various locations in Dublin around Bloomsday. Val has a lifelong interest in music and plays piano. Email him at [email protected].
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre is proud to present a lunchtime performance by Poems Ago on Saturday, January 25th at2.30pm.
Folk duo Poems Ago perform original songs and poetry put to music. At the James Joyce Centre they will present a concert in which they explore the theme ‘Home’: Interweaving the writings by James Joyce with their own experiences of moving and living abroad and coming back home. Join us for an afternoon of acoustic music and poetry.
Poems Ago are Juliana Hahn on vocals, violin and keyboard and Remco Jacobs on vocals and guitar. More information about Poems Ago can be found on their website https://www.poemsago.com/.
The James Joyce Centre was delighted to host an AboutFACE Theatre production of Orson Welles’ Christmas Carol 12-22 December 2024.
The much-loved festive “radio play within a play” for all the family came back by public demand at a beautiful and evocative new venue. In this fast-moving, heartfelt comedy based on true events, radio superstar Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre gang are presenting “A Christmas Carol” in New York live ON-AIR on Christmas Eve 1938 . . . having just lost their Scrooge! Can Orson and his overworked cast survive the last minute chaos to give this Christmas Carol a happy ending?
Featuring a 45-minute version of A Christmas Carol in the 1930’s radio style with live sound effects and carols, this was a Christmas treat for the whole family, with a touch of old Hollywood glamour!
“Delightful…Works extraordinarily well.” Sunday Independent “An absorbing success” Business Post “Absolute joy to watch” The Arts Review
Starring Lizzy Morrissey, Michael Mullen, Anna Nugent, Paul Nugent, Eoin O’Sullivan, David Ryan and Tana Walsh Directed by Kathleen Warner Yeates Written by Paul Nugent Costume Design by Tara McKeever Set Design by Jennifer Keane
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to host once again a performance of the Volta Theatre Company’s Counterparts & A Little Cloud, an adaptation of two short stories from Joyce’s debut work Dubliners, on Thursday and Friday, 14 and 15 November 2024 at 7.30pm.
Joyce’s collection of short stories provides vivid ‘slices of life’ of early 20th century Dublin. Against the backdrop of a society in paralysis, a pair of Dublin lives are revealed in stark, sometimes brutal, scenes. In Counterparts, an ungainly, bad-tempered law clerk is determined to have a heavy night’s drinking, while in A Little Cloud, a sensitive soul is embittered by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, relatable and disturbing, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who remain entirely contemporary, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars.
Performed by two actors in the iconic setting of the Joyce Centre’s Georgian drawing room, and featuring period music, this is an exquisite, intimate study of Joyce’s Dublin and its lives of quiet desperation.
Volta is a collaboration between classically-trained actors and musicians, combining theatre with cabaret, jazz and sketch comedy. Its remit is to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Liam Hourican has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic, and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim Roche has starred in Normal People, Harry Wild, Blood 2, Vikings, Damo and Ivor, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, The Tudors, and iCandy. Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland and have collaborated in a wide variety of musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.
Following on from the success of their tour around James Joyce’s Ulysses, Janet Moran and Ronan Guilfoyle joined forces again, this time to explore the intricacies of Joyce’s final novel Finnegan’s Wake, via ‘Earwicker’s Dream’ — an entertaining and fascinating journey through this classic book via jazz and spoken word on Wednesday, 16 October 2024 at 1pm. Janet is an award-winning actor and playwright, and Ronan is one of Ireland’s best-known jazz musicians, with an international career spanning more than forty years. Earwicker’s Dream was a concert piece that unites spoken word, jazz composition and improvisation, and explores the central characters in the book.
In Earwicker’s Dream Workshop, Janet and Ronan discussed how they put the project together, how they made the choices on choosing text, how the music interacts with the spoken word, and how the improvisation contained in the music allows for real-time interaction between Joyce’s prose and creative music. The workshop included live demonstrations of how the text and music work together.
The full concert piece will be performed at the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, County Wicklow, on Thursday 24th of October.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Antelope Productions in association with Field Exchange presented The Company of Trees: A Celebration in Words and Music on Sunday, 6 October 2024 at 4pm.
The Company of Trees celebrated our long and complex relationship with the forest world through literature and music. Using some of the great poetry, prose, music and song that trees have inspired over the centuries, the show explored their emotional, aesthetic, environmental and philosophical impact on our daily lives.
The Company of Trees journeyed through the natural cycle from planting to maturity and entertained, informed, provoked and, above all, raise awareness of a relationship now facing unprecedented threat.
The Company of Trees was performed by Michael James Ford, Susannah De Wrixon and Kyle Hixon in collaboration with the Delmaine String Quartet. It also featured striking photographic and video images by Brendan Keogh.
“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.” Hal Borland
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to host small joys, a multidisciplinary work in progress, by Parallel Arts on Saturday, August 17th at 6pm.
small joys explores the concept of happiness found in the seemingly mundane aspects of daily life. This original piece, featuring Parvathi Jayaram (dancer), Leah Mullen (composer/performer), Mollie Wrafter (violin), and Robert Wheatley (cellist), integrates text, music, and choreography in a 40-minute performance. The work aims to encourage reflection on the simple pleasures often overlooked in our fast-paced world. Through movement, music, and lyrics, the audience will be invited to reconsider the joy found in everyday experiences.
Parallel Arts is a new duo comprised of Parvathi Jayaram and Leah Mullen. They have worked on projects prior to the duo’s founding. Both were on the creative/performance team of “da.da.da” which premiered in February 2024 at the Scene + Heard Festival. Since forming the duo, they have held workshops for performing artists, focusing on the unique multidisciplinary and multicultural artistic practices they specialise in.
As solo artists, both Jayaram and Mullen are well versed in their given fields. Jayaram follows Guru Padmashri Bharati Shivaji’s repertoire. With over a decade of experience in this sector, she is currently exploring facets of Mohiniyattam that intersects with theatre, and is deeply engaged in developing an inclusive pedagogy for Mohiniyattam in Ireland. She is a member of Dance Ireland and founder of Idhayā, Haven for Performing Arts.
Mullen holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Music. She has had her music performed across Europe and the United States, and is the winner of several composition and creative awards.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Antelope Productions in association with The Goldsmith Festival presents
THE MISADVENTURES OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH
ADAPTED FROM WASHINGTON IRVING’S LIFE OF GOLDSMITH BY MICHAEL JAMES FORD
Starring Ben Wadell, Sinead Murphy and Michael James Ford
Thursday, July 4th – Saturday, July 6th at 8.00pm
Runtime: 80 mins.
THE JAMES JOYCE CENTRE, 35 N GREAT GEORGE’S STREET, DUBLIN 1
To mark the 250th Anniversary of the death of Oliver Goldsmith, this new comic drama tells the story of the chaotic life of the great Irish writer. From his humble beginnings as the son of a poor parson in Co Longford, it charts his youthful adventures and travels and his gradual rise to prominence as one of the leading lights of the London literary scene.
Continually thwarted by his own impulsive and intemperate nature and often dogged by misfortune, Goldsmith’s life is a rollercoaster of success and failure, euphoria and despair. But for all his eccentricities, he was a man who inspired laughter and affection and enjoyed the friendship of some of the greatest artistic figures of the age.
The Misadventures of Oliver Goldsmith is a fast-paced tragicomedy that promises laughter, tears, songs, music and merriment. It was adapted from Washington Irving’s fond and colourful biography The Life of Oliver Goldsmith, first published in 1840. The show was commissioned by The Goldsmith Festival in Longford and enjoyed a triumphant launch last month in Goldsmith’s old stomping ground of Ballymahon.
A special screening of the music documentary Hibsen@SmockAlley by Canadian filmmaker Godfrey Jordan (BloomsdayRejoyce) was on Wednesday, 3 July 2024 at 12-2pm in the Volta Room. The film highlighted the Irish folk ensemble Hibsen in their creation and performance of original songs inspired by Joyce’s Dubliners. The film contained behind-the-scenes footage of musicians Gráinne Hunt and Jim Murphy as they performed in the Smock Alley Theatre as well as interviews with Frank McNally of the Irish Times, among others.
ANNA LIVIA CREATIVE in association with the James Joyce Centre brought you ‘Strings in the earth and air…’: The Musical World of James Joycewith Nicole Rourke & Benjamin Dwyer on 16 June 2024 at 8pm.
Join us in a celebration of Joyce’s fascination with music. With excerpts from the early poetry collection, Chamber Music, through the melancholic stories of Dubliners, to the ornate worlds of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, Rourke & Dwyer offer a captivating programme of Joyce’s musical obsessions.
The show includes excerpts of ‘raw sensuality’ from Nuala O’Connor’s celebrated book Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce as well as the premiere of a new text by Nicole Rourke exploring the sensual worlds of Nora, Molly and Joyce.
Following the show, Director of the James Joyce Centre Darina Gallagher will host a Q&A with Nicole and Benjamin on the role of music in Joyce’s life and writing, and their creation of the programme. Wine will be served.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to present a lunchtime performance by Poems Ago on Thursday, June 13th at 1pm for the Bloomsday Festival. Poems Ago, the Irish-Dutch musical duo Juliana Hahn and Remco Jacobs, compose and perform music to Irish poetry and play original songs. In this concert, they performed guitar and violin music set to James Joyce’s Chamber Music (1906) as well as poetry by W.B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde, and contemporary Irish poets. The concert conincides with Yeats’ birthday.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
AnnaLiviaCreative presented the CD launch and world premiere of Secret Space, a one-hour performance of poetry by American poet Alison Grace Koehler and improvised guitar by Benjamin Dwyer with photographic images by Tony Carragher, on Friday, 7 June 2024 at 8:30pm.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
The James Joyce Centre was delighted to host a unique musical interpretation of James Joyce’s Dublinerson Tuesday, 11 June 2024 at 7:30pm. Irish folk ensemble Hibsen payed homage to Joyce with performances of their critically acclaimed album “The Stern Task of Living.” The album is a collection of 15 songs, one for each short story in Dubliners. Through their original music and lyrics, Hibsen brings the stories to life.
For lovers of Joyce, these concerts provided a unique perspective on Dubliners. For those not familiar with the stories, the performances provided an ideal opportunity to get to know them in an intimate surrounding.
“The arrangements . . . and lyrics come from the pen of people who have spent a lot of time in Joyce’s world.” John Meagher, Irish Independent
“One might almost sense the spirit of Joyce himself strolling through these tracks. Better still, you don’t have to know the stories to savour this as a musical experience in its own right.” Jackie Hayden, Hot Press Magazine
Hibsen are a contemporary folk music ensemble formed by Irish artists Jim Murphy and Gráinne Hunt. They released their debut album “The Stern Task of Living” on 26 May 2023. The album was inspired by the book of short stories Dubliners by James Joyce and it comprises 15 songs, one for each short story. It was launched at Bloomsday Festival 2023 and it has received critical acclaim. Some of the songs from the album received extensive national and regional radio play with one of the songs (Eveline) reaching number 2 on the RTE Radio 1 Airplay Chart. The Stern Task of Living was also selected as a featured album on RTE Lyric FM and on BBC Radio Ulster.
On Bloomsday, Sunday June 16th at 12pm The James Joyce Centre hosted some ‘midday mumming madness’ as the extraordinary talent of the Fingal Mummers explored mummery in Ulysses and other works of James Joyce in their production of Everyman His Own Wife.
Throughout Ulysses, Buck Mulligan calls Stephen “A lovely mummer!”; “Kinch, the loveliest mummer of them all!”; “O, you peerless mummer!” Mulligan declares that “I have conceived a play for the mummers” and launches into the title page of a lewd skit. The James Joyce Centre will be truly transformed as we watch the Fingal Mummers celebrate Bloomsday with comedy, music, mischief and song. Come witness this truly unique Irish tradition during this truly unique Irish festival.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
“Smareglia (who lives beside me) is held by many to be the most original of the living Italian musicians.” James Joyce, 1911
The James Joyce Centre was pleased to host James Joyce and Antonio Smargelia, a special Bloomsday Festival concert event that illustrates the connection between James Joyce, Antonio Smareglia, Trieste, and Pula, on June 15th at 7pm. The concert features performances of music excerpts from operas by Smareglia, the Italian-Croatian composer who was a friend and neighbour of Joyce while they both lived in Trieste.
Maltese pianist Charlene Farrugia-Božac and Croatian soprano Sofija Cingula will bring to life some of the music from operas that Joyce would have heard and admired at the time, from Smareglia’s student work Caccia lontana and Nozze Istriane (which Joyce heard in Trieste in 1908) to fragments from Oceana, Smareglia’s most novel work of music theatre known as teatro di poesia.
The event will include presentations by Croatian scholar Dr. Vito Paoletić (University of Pula) about Joyce’s time in Pula, as well as the city’s links to and celebrations of Bloomsday. Introduction about the musician Antonio Smareglia and his connection to James Joyce will be given by Dr. Juliana Licinic van Walstijn (Queen’s University Belfast), President of the Association Smaregliana.
The concert will be followed by a wine reception provided generously by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
The concert is presented by Association Smaregliana in cooperation with the University of Pula and the James Joyce Centre and sponsored by the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Dublin.
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
The James Joyce Centre was proud to present a performance of John, May, James and Meby Eddie Naughton.
Stanislaus Joyce was the younger brother of James Joyce. Born in Dublin, Stanislaus was considered a “Whetstone” by his more famous brother, who shared his ideas and his books with him. He was three years younger than James and was his constant boyhood companion. Stanislaus rebelled against his native Ireland as his brother had done, and, in 1905, he joined James’s household in Trieste. He wrote an unfinished memoir called My Brother’s Keeper, on which the play John, May, James and Me by Eddie Naughton is based, along with other writings.
The play looked at the Joyce family dynamic through the eyes of Stanislaus, from their father, John, a feckless Cork character with notions, to the long-suffering mother, May. It also looks in depth at the relationship between the two brothers over many years. Their trials and tribulations. The good times and bad. What was it like having a literary genius as a brother? How do you stop him from destroying his gift and even himself?
Performed by Pat Nolan. Directed by Bairbre Ni Chaoimh.
Eddie Naughton is a playwright based in The Liberties area of Dublin. His play John, May, James and Me isa Joyce family memoir, based on the writings of Stanislaus Joyce. Other plays he has written include Bullfight on Third Avenue, Joxer Daly Esq,The Exiling of Sean O’Casey,Adrian Phelan is Going Home, and a trilogy of drug plays (Franner and Joey, The Boy with the Halogyn Hair and The Trouble with Bobo).
Bairbre Ni Chaoimh is an actor, director and writer. She has toured nationally and internationally with all the major Irish theatre companies. She was an Associate Artist at the Abbey Theatre for three years and while Artistic Director of Calypso Productions she received an Irish Times award and a MAMA. Directing creditsinclude three plays for The Gate Theatre’s Beckett Festival, which toured to The Barbican, London and The Lincoln Center, New York and Catalpa by Donal O’Kelly, which has won awards on three continents. She directed Noni Stapleton’s one-woman show, Charolais which received a host of awards including The Stewart Parker Award and The Little Gem Award. She recently directed the Irish premiere of Stumped, a playabout Pinter and Beckett, for Bewleys Café Theatre.
Pat Nolan trained at DYT and The Focus Stanislavski Studio and appeared in many of their shows. He has an MA in Theatre from GSA/Maynooth University. He has acted, directed, and produced shows nationally and internationally. Stage work includes Cinderella and Borstal Boy at the Gaiety, 12 Angry Men at the Olympia, Risk Everything with Whirlygig, Uncle Vanyaat the Gate, Oedipus and The Wake at the Abbey. He toured extensively with Take Off Your Cornflakes. Probably best known to audiences for playing Barry in Fair City, for which he won the Rose d’Or award in Switzerland.
The Bloomsday Festival was organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, Dublin UNESCO City of Literature, and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
A “truly mesmerizing performance” (Metro Herald, Dublin) of The Dubliners Dilemma by Declan Gorman was on June 7th at 7pm.
The Dubliners Dilemma was premiered in Ireland in 2012 and has toured to Norway, USA, India, Russia (pre-Ukraine invasion) and all over Ireland. The play finds London publisher Grant Richards re-reading the manuscript of Dubliners in 1914, eight full years after he initially rejected it on the grounds it might breach strict obscenity laws. Joyce’s Dublin comes to wild life around him, a city of innocence and perversion: of sexual predators, gigolos, gamblers and drinkers mingling among street children, housemaids and exquisite concert singers. Entranced again by the literary gifts of the truculent Irish author who refused to change a single word, Richards must decide whether to take the risk second time around, and be the one finally to bring the genius of Joyce to the world.
Written and performed by Declan Gorman. Directed by Gerard Lee.
Declan Gorman is a highly regarded writer, director and performer. His previous Joyce performances The Dubliners Dilemma (2012) and Falling Through the Universe (2022) have toured widely in Ireland and overseas. In the week of Bloomsday, Declan will travel on to Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton, Ontario with a selection of his Joyce works.
“Gorman holds the audience enraptured throughout with a truly mesmerising performance. This original adaptation is by no means exclusively for die-hard Joyce fans, making a brilliant introduction for newcomers!” Metro Herald, Dublin
“Gorman is a compelling performer, at his best when undertaking childhood roles and in his element with Joyce’s obsequious characters … an animated and intelligent performance.” Irish Theatre Magazine
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
AnnaLiviaCreative was delighted to present the CD launch and world premiere of Secret Space, a one-hour performance of poetry by American poet Alison Grace Koehler and improvised guitar by Benjamin Dwyer with photographic images by Tony Carragher, on Friday, 7 June 2024 at 8:30pm.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
On June 5th at 8:15pm, the James Joyce Centre hosted a performance of Welcome O Joyce, a play specially commissioned for the James Joyce Association of Ottawa and the James Joyce Centre. It is a montage of pieces from the four great prose works of Joyce, commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the first appearance in print of an extract of what would eventually become Finnegans Wake (1939). The 1924 ‘Mamalujo’ fragment is woven into an entertaining short presentation that includes a comic prologue and vivid scenes from Ulysses (1922), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Dubliners (1914).
Performed by Declan Gorman. Written by Declan Gorman and Des Gunning.
Declan Gorman is a highly regarded writer, director and performer. His previous Joyce performances The Dubliners Dilemma (2012) and Falling Through the Universe (2022) have toured widely in Ireland and overseas. In the week of Bloomsday, Declan will travel on to Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton, Ontario with a selection of his Joyce works.
“Gorman holds the audience enraptured throughout with a truly mesmerising performance. This original adaptation is by no means exclusively for die-hard Joyce fans, making a brilliant introduction for newcomers!” – Metro Herald, Dublin
“Gorman’s charming play dramatises clearly how Joyce’s writing has embedded itself deeply in Irish culture. His subtle performance reminds us clearly what a masterwork this story is.” – Irish Independent
The Bloomsday Festival is organised by the James Joyce Centre in partnership with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Fáilte Ireland, and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
After the great success of Culture Night 2023, the James Joyce Centre was proud to host another performance of Jonathan Brielle’s acclaimed off-Broadway musical Himself and Nora on March 21st and 22nd at 7:30pm. The musical celebrates in song the love story of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle. Broadway writer and composer Jonathan Brielle performed numbers from the show in person and was accompanied by the Director of the James Joyce Centre, Darina Gallagher.
This bawdy, funny, uplifting, and melodic musical, sings the contemporary love story of James Joyce, the brilliant and hard-drinking Irish novelist, and Nora Barnacle, the woman who became his lover, partner, and muse for 37 years. Their love survived exile from Ireland, and the condemnation of the Catholic Church, and ultimately helped to create some of the greatest writing of the 20th century.
The performance coincided with Nora’s 140th birthday.
“A lively, sometimes lusty, spin through the love life, troubles and literary times of the great Irish writer…a robust romantic musical . . . The enjoyable score by Mr. Brielle, a veteran composer . . . meshes neatly with his libretto and embraces a rhythmic variety of ardent and melodic songs.” – The New York Times
Broadway composer and lyricist Jonathan Brielle has worked with many hit shows including Foxfire with Jessica Tandy and is the former National Projects Director of the Songwriters Guild of America. Jonathan is the Artistic Director and Founder of Vala, a new platform dedicated to launching new musicals.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Internationally-renowned musical artist Lila Tirando a Violeta performced at her first concert in Ireland at the James Joyce Centre on March 9th at 7:30pm. She performed a live set that went from ambient to experimental dance music with synthesizers that were inspired by James Joyce’s iconic novel Finnegans Wake. Using intricate soundscapes and ethereal melodies, Lila transported the audience into the dreamlike world of Joyce’s masterpiece, where reality and fantasy intertwine in a mesmerizing blend of music and literature.
Lila Tirando a Violeta is a musical artist from Montevideo, Uruguay who is recognized for her experimental and versatile style. Her N.A.A.F.I. debut ‘Limerencia’ was highly praised in 2020, making several end-of-the-year lists. In 2022, she released ‘Desire Path,’ which was highlighted by Pitchfork, DJ MAG, Bandcamp, and The New York Times. Lila has performed live at renowned festivals such as Primavera Sound and Mutek ES in Spain. She recently signed with London’s notable label Hyperdub and has done custom mixes for KEXP & NTS radios as well as collaborating with artists such as Loraine James, Nick León, and Nicola Cruz.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Join us at the James Joyce Centre for a delightful celebration of Saint Brigid’s Day. Immerse yourself in the rich Irish culture and traditions surrounding this beloved holiday dedicated to the patroness saint of Ireland.
Indulge in the captivating tales of Brigid of Kildare’s life and her significance in Irish folklore and Joyce’s work. Come (in Joyce’s words) “romp round brigidschool,” enjoy snacks and fine wine as we celebrate wise and wily women. The event will include stories, songs, music, and readings from Nicole Rourke, Dr. Caroline Elbay, Jess Traynor, and Darina Gallagher, among other amazing women. It will explore all the life-affirming elements of creativity that Brigid gives us: healing, nurturing, wisdom, mischief, and ritual.
The event starts at 7:30pm. The event is free but booking is essential.
The James Joyce Centre was pleased to present a musical theatre performance based on two short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners, Eveline & Clay, on Thursday, 11 January 2024 at 7:30pm. The performances showed how two women, leading restricted lives in a newly modern Dublin, make journeys towards an elusive freedom. First presented in 2009, the show is a revival of the collaboration between the accomplished composer, Michael Holohan, and the award-winning Joyce interpreter and actor, Paul O’Hanrahan.
Written by Joyce when he was a young man between the ages of 22 and 23, ‘Eveline’ and ‘Clay’ were both significant stepping stones in his development as a writer. ‘Eveline’ was initially published in the Irish Homestead in September 1904, not long before Joyce himself left Ireland with Nora Barnacle. ‘Clay’ was completed by December 1905 but it would not be until 1914 that both were published in the collection, Dubliners. The stories show a remarkable ability in a young writer to understand and represent how women’s lives were regulated and controlled by the patriarchal family, work, and religion.
Music in these stories is a form of memory and a means of socialisation; an intrinsic part of Dublin society at the time, it is already embedded in Joyce’s writing. Michael, who is from Drumcondra, has scored new piano music for these performances, drawing on an affinity with the setting of the stories on the city’s north side.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
Paul O’Hanrahan, director of Balloonatics Theatre Company, is an actor and theatre director who specialises in re-enactments of the works of James Joyce. He has won Fringe First awards for theatrical adaptations of both Ulysses and Finnegans Wake at the Edinburgh Festival. He has produced, in Dublin, street and venue performances of Joyce’s Ulysses on Bloomsday, June 16th. He also regularly performs Telemachus at the Tower, his solo show based on the opening episode of Ulysses at the Joyce Tower in Sandycove, including seven performances in 2023.
Michael Holohan, an accomplished composer and pianist, has resided in Drogheda since 1983. He has won numerous prizes as well as Arts Council awards for attending master classes, in the 1980s, with Messiaen, Boulez, Xenakis, Berio, and Lachenmann in France. His compositions have been performed and broadcast both at home and internationally.
The stars aligned on Sunday, December 17th at 7pm and 8pm for the premier ofIt’s a Sign!, Dublin’s first and only Zodiac Christmas Variety Show. It was a festive evening of music, astrological acts, and cosmic events. Each performer played their very own star sign, the roles they were born to play!
OUR FULL ZODIAC, ALL STAR CAST:
SAGITTARIUS- Lile Donohue
CAPRICORN- Méabh McKenna
AQARIUS- Isadora Epstein
PISCES- Cal Folger Day
ARIES- John Francis Flynn
TAURUS- Stephane Béna Hanly
GEMINI- Robbie Kitt
CANCER- Mary Keane
LEO- Ruan Van Vliet
LIBRA- Aoibhinn O’Dea
VIRGO- Sinéad Onora Kennedy
SCORPIO- Benjamin Stafford
Costumes by AMIE EGAN
Isadora Epstein writes and makes performances from her research of art history and mythology. Her work brings together a multidisciplinary ensemble of artists working in visual art, experimental music, and dance.
The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
