I confess to not quite being au fait with the works of James Joyce before going to see the stage adaption of his iconic novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and I was slightly worried that this would hamper my enjoyment of it, as generally his most famous work Ulysses is seen as a dense wordy volume that takes time to fully comprehend. I needn’t have worried, as Tony Chersterman’s adaption and Jimmy Fay’s direction makes for a play that, to me at least, is fully accessible. The play its self is set against a black background with any kind of furnishings painted black, books and a teapot litter the black book case, apart from that the stage is fairly bare.
The play follows the life of a young man called Stephen, a clearly autobiographic character who is often referred to by our narrator as James or Jim before being corrected. As his life progresses he struggles to come to grips with a number of topics including, national identity, politics, sex, family relations and each time they are intertwined with his feelings on the church and his Catholicism. Each topic that’s addressed is intertwined with the church, much as his own life is. The play has a certain quirkiness that lends a funny, sometimes tongue in cheek humour to sections and in others give it a really eerie quality. In one almighty scene where a priest is launching into a diatribe about the fires of hell, 3 priests stand in a triangle, the omnipresent holy trinity of the church in full force, another sees a girl in a white dress dance on a projected image as the same girl begins speaking from the back of the theatre, she slowly walks around and as she come into our view and mounts the stage, the projection fades as if she has been brought to life before fading away again. The play is littered through with this kind of symbolism, and I you can take or leave as much of it as you want, it gives the play an immersive quality that stops short of audience participation, but often comes close. A priest stands at one point on the very edge of the stage and preaches to the audience asking us to repent, and as adamant as he was perhaps a few people did!
Lighting plays a large part of the 5 man production, casting shadows that prostitutes can creep in and glowing red on halls where a Minotaur awaits. Some religious scenes are lit in such a way as if the light of god from up above where shining down onto his would be disciple. Black and white too is used to great effect as Stephen remains in all white though-out (bar a suit at the very end) whilst the church and it’s advocates are dressed in black, as Stephen can take no more of the endless preaching bout hell fire he lies out arms straight out on the floor, all in white, as if a mirror image of the priest looming over him all in black.
This play deals with some deep issues but it’s very entertaining. It’s entertainment with food for thought.
When: Tues 18 – Sat 22 March
Where: Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Price: Tuesday – Thursday £16, Friday – Saturday £20 (Balcony seats discounted by 20%)
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