Cyclops – Bewley’s Cafe Theatre – Review
by Frank L

Cyclops – written by James Joyce
Cyclops is the 12th chapter in Ulysses. Liam Hourican has adapted the sequence into this theatrical piece.

The action takes place in Barney Kiernan’s pub. Ensconced there is the Citizen (Jim Roche), a part of the furniture, with his strongly held, narrow views and his dog. The narrator (Liam  Hourican) engages with him. There is a two-piece band of Conor Sheil (clarinet) and Feilimdh Nunan (Piano and violin) which adds a fine Edwardian feel to the proceedings. Various Dubliners come and go. Joe Hynes is played by Danny Kehoe and Damien Devaney plays 3 parts: the Bard, Bob Doran and Martin Cunningham. Leopold Bloom (Jo Dow) is not part of the narrow-minded clientele. He is an outsider. He is a Dublin Jew.

Under the direction of Liam Hourican on the small stage of Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, the audience is brought into the hard-drinking world of Barney Kiernan’s pub where the Citizen gives full rein to his anti-Semitic views. In this company, Bloom is out of place.

The play is barely 40 minutes in duration, but this talented cast brings you right into the ambience of Joyce’s Edwardian Dublin warts and all. As the programme note states, “At a time when social media is a cacophony of ‘nationalist’ voices evoking supposedly glorious Irish history and using the tragedy of our past to justify ugly modern-day racism, the play could not be staged at a more appropriate time”. That is undoubtedly true, but that serious underlying point is delivered with an engaging sense of comic realism as the denizens of Barney Kiernan’s pub display their prejudices and foibles. With Bloomsday looming, this well-put-together theatrical interlude adds a fine, thoughtful piece of entertainment to the commemoration.

CAST AND CREW​

​ADAPTED & DIRECTED BY: Liam Hourican

FEATURING: Damien Devaney, Jo Dow, Liam Hourican, Danny Kehoe & Jim Roche

MUSICIANS: Feilimidh Nunan on Keyboard and Violin & Conor Shiels on Clarinet

LIGHTING DESIGN: Colm Maher   

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Gavin Doyle