PL AYBILL the dead
the dead anthony macmahon adapted from the dead by james joyce }{
approximate running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. there will be no intermission
ARTIST NOTE: LEAH CHERNIAK Our play takes place on January 6th, in Dublin. It is The Feast of The Epiphany, sometimes known as Twelfth Night, an occasion for yet another seasonal, celebratory feast. In religious terms, this was the day the Three Wise Men found the baby Jesus and his divinity was revealed to the world. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines epiphany as “a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something.” Joyce described an epiphany as being suddenly perceived through a rather ordinary moment. The word epiphany has a Greek origin and implies the idea of a phantom. An appearance. All very provocative beginnings for working on Anthony MacMahon’s adaptation of James Joyce’s The Dead. Soulpepper is hopping right now! There are artists flying from one rehearsal venue to another, making theatre in every corner of the building. It seems particularly full and rich this fall as we enter into different rooms exploring worlds of revolution, wars, family drama; going to France, Russia, Canada and of course Ireland. Some workshop productions of new plays may have a few days or a week, or an intense three weeks before presenting to the public. For The Dead, we spent
short bursts of time together over three months. We have been scratching away at it, trying to shed light on the story, the people and place of our play. It has been a total pleasure working with this cast and creative team, including our young and talented playwright, Anthony. He is very connected to the original short story, to Ireland, to the spirit of James Joyce. He has brought all of us into a moody, evocative world through the words of the play. From our first days of exploration, the piece proved to be an undoubtedly aural experience, with Joyce’s sense of poetry and language and wit. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to search with Anthony for a way to reveal this story. I’m grateful to all the energy of everyone working on it, helping to expose an essential tone and quality. The point of a workshop production is to illuminate the play at this phase of development in hopes that it might carry forth to another presentation in the future, and the audience is essential to this process. Thank you so much for coming.
LEAH CHERNIAK, Director of The Dead
s t u dio s e r i e s s p on sor