Review: Tumultuous RIVERRUN at Kennedy Center's IRELAND 100

In a couple of weeks, another Bloomsday will be celebrated, and James Joyce's Ulysses will be read aloud by fans of Irish literature worldwide. No such celebration is made for his final book, Finnegans Wake, however.

But when the Irish actress Olwen Fouéré was asked to read an excerpt of her choosing from the 1939 novel at a public event, she selected the final page, where, as she recalls, "the river Liffey calls out to us as she dissolves into the ocean time."

Its tumble of words, rhymes, declarations and onomatopoeia may seem oblique on at the page, but spoken aloud, Fouéré found its meaning, connecting Liffey to the word Life, its connections to all the world's river, even the river of the bloodstream coursing through our veins.

She pounced on this life-giving water and worked back in Joyce's novel to where she found a twilight occasion to begin - specifically the start of Book IV and it's call of "Sandhyas! Sandhyas! Sandhyas! Calling all downs to dayne. Array!"

That low, throaty call begins her performance she created of riverrun which she premiered at the Galway International Arts Festival three years ago and resurrected in Washington for the Kennedy Center's big three week Ireland 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts & Culture.

There, it fits right into the celebration of music, literature, dance and food happening all over the building.

Still, it defies category in many ways.

Fouéré, last seen locally in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's award-winning production of Salomé, begins her performance in the modest Family Theatre watching the audience file in. She's almost unnoticed at first, to the side of the stage, standing hawklike, her silver hair gathered back, she's poised to move, but doesn't until performance time.

Then she very deliberately removes her shoes and approaches the black box theatre behind her, walking gingerly along the edge of the spill of sea salt, the stage's only decoration, which is spread in a map-like splotch on the ground and reflects the stage light.

Her recitation of word play and rhymes, in sheiks and whispers, slow and quick, begins to take up the rhythms of dance. And though she largely stands at the bent microphone as if ready to pounce, movement is more implied than actual during the 70 minute performance.

Fouéré removes the literature from the moorings of words on paper and gives it flight in a performance that's more like a long art song.

The final line of Finnegans Wake is thought to connect with the first line of the book, to make it a circular, unending statement. And the first word in the book? "riverrrun."

Joyce's tumble of alliteration and tongue-twisters, declarations, wisdom and gibberish, sometimes in Gaelic, can be tough to take if one wants every literal word (and a couple of audience members lobbied for some kind of subtitles to do just that).

But viewers are better off to let the river wash one over with its words and asides and unexpected turns.

By the end of riverrun, Fouéré removes her jacket and begins to whip it, sweeping the salt aside in the process. Then she adds her own touch, a whistled snipped of that World War I music hall song "It's A Long Way to Tipperary" that seems to fit the narrative, whatever it was.

Running time: 70 minutes, no intermission.

riverrun was performed May 25 and 26 at the Kennedy Center as part of its " Ireland 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts & Culture" that continues through June 5. More information online.

To post a comment, you must register and login.