INTERVIEW: You’re invited to a James Joyce dinner party

Immersive theater is still in vogue around New York City, but few productions could be considered as effective in their immersion as The Dead, 1904, co-produced by the Irish Repertory Theatre, Dot Dot Productions and the American Irish Historical Society.

First, there are the unique surroundings. The adaptation of James Joyce’s short story is set in the American Irish Historical Society’s beautifully rendered headquarters across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Theatergoers are escorted to the second floor of the building to enjoy some libations, conversations and food with the characters in Joyce’s story.

The evening, which includes a few surprises along the way, follows the general plot of the original text, but the improvisation with the audience means no two performances are the same. The play is structured around Misses Morkan’s holiday party in 1904 on the Feast of the Epiphany. Whiskey and Guinness flow plentifully, and a turkey and beef tenderloin dinner await guests in the dining room.

The family members who circulate the rooms have an obvious shared history, and it’s great fun figuring out where allegiances lie, what past failures may be brought to the surface and how the evening will ultimately end.

The production returns to New York City after last year’s sold-out holiday run. This year’s incarnation stars Melissa Gilbert and Rufus Collins.  Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Clare O’Malley, who plays the maid in the story, Lily. This is her second time in the show. Here’s what she had to say:

On how she became attached to the original production in 2016 …

“Well, I moved to New York around September of last year, and I’ve always loved the Irish Repertory Theatre. I’ve always loved their stuff. It’s kind of a dream to work there, auditioned for Lily for Ciarán [O’Reilly, the director]. … And then luckily when they decided to do the remount, they asked me back, which was very nice of them. It was interesting though because I have actually done The Dead before, another iteration of it at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 2012, so I was very familiar with the piece already. So it was a nice way to go into an audition.”

On what she expected from the immersive aspects of the show …

“I had no idea actually what to expect. I have never done immersive theater before. This may sound crazy — I’ve done pantomime in Dublin before, and in panto, you have a lot of engaging with the audience. You can actually ask questions to the audience, and they respond. It’s very different though because you’re in the safety of a proscenium, so with this, it was very different. I had no idea what to expect, but obviously you really have to breathe and be with people and be so full in the character when you meet them at the bottom of the steps. That’s the funnest part of the whole thing, I think for me, the first connection.”

On the unique qualities of each performance …

“Some nights we do it where a lot of people in the audience know one another, and that has a really nice kind of feel to it because that’s really the way that the story is. Everyone knows one another, you know, and they all come to celebrate together on the Feast of the Epiphany. So it’s quite cool when people do know one another, but I guess I do make the joke usually at the bottom of the stairs that everyone’s family at the Morkans. So even if you don’t know someone at the beginning of the night, hopefully after dinner, you might have gotten to know someone new, even in the audience, which is a nice little treat.”

On going back to the source material for inspiration …

“I think Joyce is Joyce and so wonderful because he can write very little and say so much, so I mean obviously I’ve read and reread that short story so many times. And I get more and more out of it every time. Lily, the caretaker’s daughter … she’s not the girl she used to be, and the short little snippy comment that she makes to Gabriel in the very beginning says a lot about what’s going on within her. So that’s the fun part of being an actor is creating the whole story that’s going on underneath, and revisiting it this year has been great because I just keep getting to layer and layer on top, just like Joyce has with the story. I mean, I’m hearing things differently in the text overall this year than I even heard last year.”

On whether the actors eat the dinner each night …

“Some of them do; some of them don’t. It depends on the day that you get them. I don’t really serve. It’s kind of under the illusion [because] the Great Performances are the caterers, and they have an amazing group of staff that come in. And they serve the round table. … Gabriel cuts the turkey, and we serve out like little bits of turkey to the cast members. Sometimes they eat; sometimes they don’t. It depends. It’s interesting though playing Lily, it’s a whole other perspective than the rest of the cast gets.

“That whole fascination of Downton Abbey and the upstairs, downstairs. I do love getting to be Lily because you get to see things from a whole different angle, and she’s the only representation of lower working-class within the story. And I think that says a lot as well, and she’s the only work maid. I mean, yeah, when you’re at the Society, you see all these Great Performances [servers], but actually within the story, Lily is the only helper that the Morkans have. And that says a lot to their state as well.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

The Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of The Dead, 1904 continues through Jan. 7 at the American Irish Historical Society at 991 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.