Tweet

Review Round-up: Have Critics Exiled Joyce’s Play?

Exiles, the only stage play by Irish novelist James Joyce, was revived at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre last night (2 August 2006, previews from 26 July), for a repertory run to 26 October 2006 (See News, 19 Apr 2006). James Macdonald’s production is the first in 30 years.

In 1914, during his long self-imposed exile from his native Ireland, Joyce wrote Exiles, between his classic novels Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. It’s based in part on the author’s own relationship with his common-law wife Nora Barnacle. Back in Dublin after nine years abroad, Richard and Bertha have to confront two other people who love them and ask themselves questions about guilt and responsibility. Will infidelity hold them together?

Overnight critics commented on how modern the play’s themes are, dealing with infidelity and immorality in a way which was quite shocking for audiences at the time it was written. They were impressed with the controlled performances of the cast and admired Hildegard Bechtler’s evocative design.

Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard - “Exiles’ psychologically nuanced portrait of a marriage in emotional distress manifests a startling modernity. Its ideas about sexual freedom and experiment within a traditionally closed marital framework remind us that some Edwardians were free radicals…. Peter McDonald's enthralling performance of becalmed, brooding introversion ensures the husband keeps his inscrutability intact…. MacDonald's production sacrifices Exiles' governing mood of perverse and agonised sexual confusion, which McDonald, Miss Plunkett and Dervla Kirwan's troubled Bertha powerfully transmit, in favour of Dunbar's misguided, winsome perkiness. James Joyce is accordingly done down.”

- by Caroline Ansdell

Related Content

Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	Exiles Listing Page

Internal Links
	Exiles - 3rd Aug 2006 reviews