Eilin brings Molly Bloom soliloquy ‘home’ to West

Date Published: {J}

Molly Bloom’s soliloquy at the end of the James Joyce’s Ulysses is recognised as one of the most famous female narratives in modern literature, and now it’s coming to a Galway stage courtesy of actress Eilin O’Dea of Big Hand Productions.

Sensuous, compelling and at times hugely funny, this soliloquy is the only time in Joyce’s seminal novel where Molly’s voice is heard. In the piece, which was highly controversial when the novel was published, she ranges over divers topics including life, love, sex and loneliness.

“I don’t think the piece has ever been performed in Galway, says Cork born Eilin who is based in Dublin and who has previously performed the piece for Bloomsday in the James Joyce Centre and Smock Alley Theatre.

Eilin, who trained as an actor in the Samuel Beckett Centre in Trinity and then worked in Paris and London, was living in Paris some years ago when she got a phone call to do some readings for Bloomsday. At the time, she contributed a piece, but, as she was in her early 20s then, she was too young to play Molly Bloom.

However, the piece left an impact on her and she has chosen to join the company of renowned actresses Fionnuala Flanagan and Siobhán McKenna who have previously performed Molly Bloom’s soliloquy.

It is controversial, says Eilin of her interpretation, but she feels that her Molly Bloom is not as controversial as the performance by Fionnuala Flanagan although it’s probably more shocking than Siobhán McKenna’s version.

Eilin feels the soliloquy was written about Nora Barnacle and so, in her interpretation, the language is that of the West of Ireland.

“I feel that the rhythm and flow of the piece is definitely West of Ireland,” she explains adding that the director of the piece is from Dublin and many of the phrases in the piece were unfamiliar to him.

Local resonances aside, Ulysses is a grammatical nightmare, so learning the soliloquy was a challenge.

“There’s no punctuation marks, so it took months of work to find the punctuation marks and learn it.”

However, Eilin did have a couple of advantages.

“I’m bad at maths, but I’m blessed with a very good memory for history and English. And there’s a real flow to the piece, one thing really does flow logically onto the other. Joyce was a musician and a singer and this is almost like a piece of music.”

There are all different sort of emotions in the piece, there is comedy and there is tragedy and she works to cover the spectrum. The account by Molly of losing her infant Rudy is particularly poignant, she says.

And, the character of Molly is the key that unlocks the secrets of Joyce’s iconic novel.

“If you read the soliloquy in Ulysses, it gives you a huge understanding of the novel as a whole, because it gives you an insight into the characters that you wouldn’t have had before.

Eilin will perform Molly Bloom in the Town Hall Studio from February 3-6 at 8.30pm nightly. Then she’s off to Cork and Dublin and then there are a few tentative offers from other venues. Booking at 091-569777, or tht.ie.