riverrun – review

●●●●●

Perhaps fittingly, Olwen Fouéré’s scintillating riverrun (an adaptation of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake) has navigated its way back to its source in the form of Project Arts Centre, where the production first premiered back in 2013 as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Having enjoyed success internationally, Dublin audiences have another chance to experience the tour de force that is Fouéré’s performance one last time, before it sets sail on the great ocean of time once more.

We begin as we mean to go on. We enter the space where Fouéré stands downstage watching us take our seats, her gaze committed but not uninviting, an incentive for the elaborate sound stream that follows. As she quietly takes off her boots, she steps onto an ocean-salted floor and stands before her microphone shaped like a bend in a river, ready to begin the Journey of Life. Through adaptation, Joyce’s text undergoes surgical imagination, subsequently becoming potent, lyrical and at times very funny. Fouére’s unrelenting corporeal demonstration allows her to quite literally become the river — its force, energy and ever-changing rhythm are the suitable medium through which Joyce’s text comes to life. She begins with a nasal rendition of the infamous sanskrit introduction to Book IV (the Dawning of Day), and plunges into the murky depths of the text thereafter with aplomb. What follows is a stream of consciousness, doused in a strangely accurate sense of human existence; we quickly abandon any hope of narrative, and take things experientially — treading water not quite knowing where the nearest patch of land might be.

Design here is key in creating the ambiance Fouéré’s vision lends itself to. Lighting is used effectively by Stephen Dodd in the creation of beautiful spaces — in particular when we are momentarily submerged under water via crisp blue light, a time when everything seems to stand still. Alma Kelliher’s gurgling sound design too injects a rich phonetic element which we almost lose track of as time passes — a testament to the sensual grip this production holds us in; everything seems to blend into some deeper, psychological connection with the real, where language is abandoned, instead opting for a journey of unhinged experience.

Best served with an open mind, riverrun is beautifully difficult to ascertain. Sacred, elusive, and definitely not to be missed.

riverrun runs at Project Arts Centre until January 31.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *