By: David de Young
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| Jon Cole, Miriam Must and Darcey Engen in a publicity photo for Red Eye Theater's production of Dead City |
An email blast from Red Eye Managing Director Miriam Must reassured potential theatergoers they need not have read Ulysses to enjoy the theater’s current production, the Twin Cities premiere of Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City. The play, first produced in New York in 2006, is a free adaptation of James Joyce’s monolithic novel, but there’s no need to know Dublin like the back of your hand to follow the action since it all takes place in an almost too contemporary New York City. Some knowledge of Joyce, however, doesn’t hurt. Nor does literacy in cultural icons like Patti Smith, or the McDonald’s Sausage Egg and Cheese biscuit, for that matter.
Dead City is divided into 18 scenes, each loosely based on one of the 18 chapters of Ulysses. Familiarity with the themes and locations of the original novel may add to your enjoyment as you note the cleverness of parallels in some of the scenes. (Reading the Wikipedia Plot Summary of the book may be all you need to pick up on that.) But in a note from Callaghan herself that is included in Red Eye’s program notes for the show, the playwright admits that by the time the play took final form she had found herself “chasing threads that were quite apart from the themes in Joyce’s novel.”
Some of the cleverest transformations occur in the characterizations. Joyce’s Leopold Bloom becomes Samantha Blossom, and Stephan Dedalus has morphed into Jewel Jupiter, who in turn has substituted Patti Smith for William Shakespeare. Is it working for you yet?
Miriam Must herself plays the lead role of Samantha and is supported by an even cast that includes Sandy’Ci Moua as Jewel, and five additional performers who play a total of 24 roles.
Scene changes in the Red Eye production are done with a sparse selection of props, aided visually by custom video projected on the back wall of the theater. Music and sound effects are presented live by David Means who plays piano and other instruments from a command center at the back of the stage.
As Samantha moves through 24 hours of her life on June 16th (Bloomsday), 2004 - exactly 100 years after Leopold Bloom moved through his day in Dublin - we are presented with affairs (Samantha's internet affair with a young man and her suspicions of her husband’s affair with another young woman), talk of death, actual death, childbirth and even song and dance. A well known Patti Smith song features prominently.
There’s a lot going on here. And though the play itself plods occasionally, the scene (chapter) breaks provide resets to rekindle your interest. One issue I did have with the production was that because the play makes use of the entire width of the Red Eye space, the action on stage right where I was seated was more engaging for me that what transpired some distance away on stage left. To avoid this problem, I recommend going early enough to situate yourself somewhere in the middle of the theater if possible. And just enjoy the play for what it is without worrying too much about the references. Your laughter at your own cleverness for picking things up will not be nearly as rewarding as your enjoyment of the provocative theatrical experience Dead City offers.
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Location Info:
Red Eye Theater
Artist Info: Red Eye Theater
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