James Joyce's Dubliners: Counterparts & A Little Cloud
Adapted and directed by Jim Roche and Liam Hourican
Starring Jim Roche and Liam Hourican
Keyboard and violin: Feilimidh Nunan
Oboe: Conor Shiels
Suitable for all Ages
These two short stories from Joyce’s debut work are vivid ‘slices of life’ of early 20th century Dublin. Against the backdrop of a society in paralysis, desperately awaiting change, a pair of Dublin lives are revealed in stark, sometimes brutal, scenes. In Counterparts, an ungainly, bad-tempered law clerk is determined to have a heavy night’s drinking, while in A Little Cloud, a sensitive soul is embittered by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, relatable and disturbing, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who remain entirely contemporary, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars.
Performed by two actors and featuring period music, this is an exquisite, intimate study of Joyce’s Dublin and it’s lives of quiet desperation.
The show has played to packed out audiences in the ICC in Hammersmith, London and at venues throughout Ireland.
Volta Theatre Company is a new company with the remit to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Its’ founders are Liam Hourican and Jim Roche, who have collaborated for many years in theatre and TV. Liam has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim has starred in Normal People (directed by Lenny Abramson (BBC), Harry Wild (Acorn TV) Blood 2 (Virgin Media) Vikings(History Channel), Damo and Ivor, Fair City, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, Dead Still (RTE), The Tudors (Showtime) and iCandy (Channel 4). Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil regularly work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland (National Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Wexford Festival Orchestra, Irish National Opera Orchestra). Their professional interests have led them to collaborate with many other groups in film and theatre but also in different musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.