Arts and Entertainment Brooklyn Boro

Noted writers adapt James Joyce classic to interactive theater

January 2, 2018 By Peter Stamelman Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Rufus Collins in “The Dead, 1904.” Photo by Carol Rosegg
Rufus Collins in “The Dead, 1904.” Photo by Carol Rosegg
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The heart and soul of great stories, first written and published in books, can find a glorious renewal in spoken words on a stage. Such was the case with the classic short story, “The Dead,” written by James Joyce and originally published in 1914 as the last piece in one of his most popular books, “The Dubliners.”  Two acclaimed contemporary writers, one of whom founded a high-quality book club that often meets in Brooklyn, crafted a unique and interactive Joycean theatre experience that is staged over three floors of a Victorian mansion.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon is one of the story’s adaptors. He was born in Northern Ireland and has worked as a professor of poetry at Oxford University, poetry editor at The New Yorker and author of 12 major collections of poetry. Muldoon is the recipient of several awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He has been described by critics as “the most significant English-language poet born since the second World War,” and has also been compared to Yeats.

Muldoon moved to New York City with his wife, novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, who helped to adapt the short story for the theater. Korelitz was born and raised in New York City and attended Dartmouth College and Clare College in Cambridge. She is the author of seven novels and a collection of poetry. Korelitz founded the group Book The Writer, which is a service that offers Pop-Up-Book-Groups where books can be discussed with their authors.

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Peter Stamelman recently interviewed Rufus Collins, the lead actor in Muldoon and Korelitz’s “The Dead, 1904” for the Brooklyn Eagle. Collins is a longtime Brooklyn Heights resident. The interview appears below. 

James Joyce As Spoken Word: Live on Stage, ‘The Dead’ Breathes

Eagle: In the novella, Joyce gives us Gabriel’s innermost thoughts about Gretta’s revelation of Michael Furey, her young lover “who died for love of her.” The play requires you to actually recite these lines. How demanding and difficult was it for you as an actor to take the prose and turn it into dialogue?

Rufus Collins: Good question. First, it’s worth noting that Joyce’s prose was turned into dialogue by the adaptors, Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz. My recitation, or enactment, of the final passage was certainly one of my main challenges since these words were written to be read not spoken, much less performed. Strictly speaking, it is not dialogue; but it is part of an internal psychological drama that has been brewing in Gabriel throughout the evening.

Eagle: In the novella, Gabriel is spiritually inert, an outsider; Joyce describes him as the “West Briton.” (Many literary critics have speculated that it is a sly portrait of Joyce himself.) What was your approach to showing us all facets of Gabriel? His jealousy, his hurt, his petulance? (“He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful, but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death.”)

RC: As with all masterpieces, critics have used “The Dead” as grist for every conceivable mill. Little of that academic work is useful to an actor. Yes, Gabriel is accused of being a “West Briton” by Molly Ivors, another character in the story, but I don’t think one should conclude that Joyce has rendered the same judgment of Gabriel or of himself. That said, there are certainly elements of Joyce in Gabriel Conroy. In the early 20th century, debates about Irish Nationalism and identity were raging. For example, W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, both Protestants, formed the Abbey Theatre in part to promote what came to be known as the “Celtic Revival” while Joyce, a Catholic, lived most of his adult life abroad. Joyce’s vision of Ireland may not have pleased these contemporaries, but I doubt any scholar would label him with the derogatory term “West Briton” today.

Jealousy, hurt and petulance are universal emotions. I try to respond truthfully in my reactions to Gabriel’s frustrations and disappointments as the evening unfolds.

Eagle: And you succeed admirably.

RC: Thank you!

Eagle: What are the special challenges of doing a play in situ — not on a stage but amid the audience itself? On three floors of a mansion? While seated with members of the audience for dinner, do you stay in character?

RC: Immersive theater removes the “fourth wall” completely. It is the most exposed acting I’ve ever done. There is no private space, therefore no distance between character and actor. I hope to bring this integration of role and self into my future work. At dinner, we follow the lead of our “guests.” Some people talk about Dublin or trips to the west of Ireland while others bring up politics or crow about where their kids got into college. It’s always interesting…

Eagle: Let me fill in a few biographical details: Where are you from originally? And do you come from a family of actors?

RC: I was born in New York City and grew up on the Upper West Side in the Columbia University neighborhood Morningside Heights. I majored in English at Columbia (BA ’83) with a focus on Shakespeare. Senior year I auditioned for a production of “Much Ado About Nothing” and was cast as the Friar. I caught the acting bug in that production. As for your question about coming from a family of actors: not at all. Both of my parents are academics. My father is a retired professor; my mother was a classicist: she studied and taught Greek and Latin. So, it was a very intellectual, scholarly household, with an interest in the arts.

Eagle: How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to be an actor.

RC: Well, I went to drama school in London. And my parents came over to see me in a production of [Sam Shepard’s] “Buried Child.” I played Tilden, the simpleton. My mother said afterward, “If I had any doubts about you being able to do this on the highest level, you’ve certainly erased those doubts.” So, sure, in the beginning they did have some concerns.

Eagle: Practical concerns? As in how do you earn a living?

RC: Well, you know, you never make partner as an actor.

Eagle: (Laughing) Well put; I think I’m going to use that line.

RC: Well, it’s true. I think they both pursued what they were satisfied by. My father was a professor of philosophy at Columbia. Now at the time, that didn’t seem all that strange to me, but as I got older I thought, “Well, that’s not your everyday profession.”

Eagle: Growing up, who were the actors whose work you admired?

RC: That’s a good question. In college I became something of an Anglophile. In fact, that’s a major part of the reason I chose to do my postgraduate drama studies in London. So, for example, Peter O’Toole and Richard Burton were two of my heroes. There was a period when films like “Becket” and “A Lion in Winter” really inspired me. While in London I got to see John Gielgud’s final performance on stage in “The Best of Friends” by Hugh Whitemore. But then my anglophilia subsided and I began to appreciate our own, homegrown actors, you know the ones we all love: Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, Jimmy Cagney, William Holden.

Eagle: Back to you — when did you move to Brooklyn?

RC: In 2000. I moved to the Heights, which I consider is the most beautiful neighborhood in the entire city.

Eagle: You won’t get any argument from anybody at the Eagle about that. What are some of your favorite Brooklyn activities? And do you have shout-outs to any local restaurants, coffee places, bars?

RC: I love walking the Brooklyn Bridge and riding my bike along the waterfront down to Red Hook. I’m a big fan of the Botanic Gardens, BAM and the Brooklyn Museum. Among my favorite restaurants are Jack the Horse Tavern, French Louie, The Good Fork, The Finch and Triple D’s Bakery and Restaurant for great Jamaican food. For coffee, I like Swallow and the Green Grape Annex. I like the bar Karasu behind Walter’s and the Mayflower on Waverly.

Eagle: Final borough question: When you have friends visiting from out of town, to what Brooklyn attraction do you most enjoy taking them?

RC: I urge them to walk the [Brooklyn] Bridge — that’s best attraction in all of New York!

“The Dead 1904” continues performances at the American Irish Historical Society through Jan. 7. For a schedule of performance dates and ticket information, go to irishrep.org.

 


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