As you are now, so once were we

Try get your tongue around the title “As you are now, so once were we” and I guarantee you stumble. Try to say it twice and you were we and now was then. This is the way this performance should be approached. The way that the words of the title get mixed and muddled mimics the interplay of the performance. A story that starts at the beginning, circumnavigates any sense of direction and promptly places you back at the beginning at the end. Confused? Exactly!

Set as a modern interpretation of Joyces ‘Ulysses’ it follows four actors on their journey to the intimate setting of the Peacock theatre. The journey to the Abbey’s little sister is seen differently through each of the eyes of actors and is justifiably confused. The different personalities give each retelling another twist so the audience is left wondering which way is up and what will happen next. Leaving the theatre at the end, one is as confused and bemused as if having read on of Joyces quotes “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day!”

This feeling penetrates into the range of emotions experienced by the audience. It varies from outright laughter at Brian ‘the self proclaimed B-man’ Bennetts version of the tale to an intense anticipation, where the audience hangs on every word from Rob McDermott’s final summation of the voyage. Somewhere in the middle there’s the static yet three dimensional version from Nyree Yergainharsian and a welcome change to low key lighting with Tanya Wilson.

When the Safety curtain rises it reveals a sparse stage backed by a curious montage of cardboard boxes. The cast, clad as if at rehearsal or on the way to art College, flank the stage. The show kicks off with an Art Attack effort to blow the cobwebs off the audience. A pre-recorded track is blasted over the PA system and combined with a nonsensical dance with the boxes on stage. Once the mood of confusion has settled firmly on the audience they are given a mesmerising narrative of actress’ Nayree morning activities. As she stands centre stage and details the morning’s hum-drum activities , the other actors use the boxes as props to give life to her tale. Boxes are transformed into opening doors, reflecting mirrors and descending stairs. The stationary character is placed in a three dimensional world which sets the rhythm for the rest of the performance. Her story introduces the other characters, which take over the tale at their whim, interjecting at random to tell the audience of their version of the events. The story quickly changes from a telling in the first person, to a group telling and back to the first person at ­­twice the speed of confusion. It’s a tiresome affair and the constant brightness of the stage weighs on the eyes, the only lighting relief comes in the moments of Tanya’s own confusion.

The script is as full of puns, parodies, and allusions as Joyce’s great novel. It takes up the mantel of his original title choice Dubliners by focusing on the Odyssey of the four locals to get to the performance. Ties can be drawn immediately to his first episode of ‘Ulysses ‘ Telemachus, the use of the breakfast scene, the walk along through the streets of Dublin and the imagined cruel remarks from Tanya of the B-Man’s friend. Other direct parallels can be seen where the narrative shifts abruptly, time is reset and another character takes over. Nyree’s tale is hijacked with Brian’s, reset and retold as it did in with the introduction Leopold Bloom. The B-man starts his version in the Siren style where the episode dominated by motif of music and humour.

The smartness of the direction from Jose Miguel Jimenez, a graduate of the Bachelor in Acting Studies in Trinity College, is only truly evident as the play comes towards its close. The muffled vignettes experienced from behind boxes throughout the play require the stage to be rotated 180 degrees to be heard clearly. The hidden actress, Tanya, comes to the fore to impart her account of the group’s wanderings. She in turn is backed by the muffled stories from the other cast member who have switched places with her and are now hidden behind the cardboard boxes. The cast show a great understanding of the acoustics of the small venue, able to reduce their voices to mere whispers yet travel them to the far end of the theatre.

The performance almost ends with a haunting account of the cavalcade with great run-on sentences from Rob McDermott. The audience has barely regained its breath from a comical facebook analogy when his account stills all those assembled. But it doesn’t end here. Instead it tries to express the hidden meaning of the play, retells it, reiterates it and overkills it. The performance brings itself to several endings, but proudly pushes through each of them, as if trapped in itself until it finally finds its resting place, a little too late.

Another great effort from the ‘The Company’, founded by graduates of Trinity College Dublin, proving why they’ve already been awarded two awards in the Absolute Fringe Festival and why the Project Arts Centre is crucial for the development of the Arts in Ireland.