Riverrun
The Shed,
National Theatre,
London
★★★ (out of five)
TWO things are often said about Finnegans Wake. First: it’s an incomprehensible mash of language – inaccessible to most folk.
Second: the story itself is cyclical, with no defined beginning or a set end.
Olwen Fouéré usurps the former idea and stays true to the latter in this spellbinding take on the voice of the river in James Joyce’s last major work.
20 minutes before the show is supposed to start, Fouéré, in a sharp grey suit matched to her hair along with gold-flesh brogues, has already taken her place on the tiny, intimate stage.
The Shed, a red-planked hut hooked on to the National, is apt in its place on the Southbank overlooking the Thames which trickles along constantly below.
The veteran actress greets early visitors, somewhat eerily, with stares.
Meanwhile a nautical buzz rings out and – fire-exit-warning aside – the show feels like it might have already began.
It’s a feeling which is heightened by audience lights which don’t drop until five minutes in what are neat pieces of direction.
Olwen Fouéré in riverrun. Photo: Colm HoganAn interpretation of Finnegans Wake through the medium of spoken word, dance and performance?
The resounding feeling from the hour-long, one-woman show was: why hasn’t this been done many, many times before?
After all, Joyce positively demanded the work was to be read aloud.
And Fouéré’s performance tonight is terrific, mixing fog-horn-like vocals, which elevate Dublin’s River Liffey to ocean-wide levels, with full-pelt gyrations as well as an immense delivery of what must be very difficult language to perform.
Seemingly nonsensical phrases and puns are delivered with ease through four rapid acts, which only let up in pace through parts of Anna Livia Plurabelle in the closing scenes.
The show is also warm and, as titters from the crowd confirm, funny throughout.
Even better, a performance like this may help a new audience find an access point into such a difficult work.
riverrun runs until March 22 at the Shed, National Theatre
