‘Strings in the earth and air…’ with Nicole Rourke and Benjamin Dwyer

‘Strings in the earth and air…’

Inspired by James Joyce’s love for Nora Barnacle this show is an evocation of St Bridget through the literature and music of Joyce, Benjamin Dwyer, Nicole Rourke and Nuala O’Connor

Join us in a celebration of St Bridget’s Week through the story of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle—the powerful female presence in Joyce’s writing. ‘Strings in the earth and air…’ explores a wide range of Joyce’s writing that deals with love, loss and death in a specially devised programme that also includes contemporary writing and music inspired by Nora and the music that Joyce loved to sing and play.

The programme opens with excerpts from the early poetry collection, Chamber Music, alongside Dwyer’s beautiful arrangements of traditional Irish classics such as Down by the Sally Gardens and The Last Rose of Summer. The show also features the melancholic stories of Dubliners, the ornate worlds of Ulysses, and a wild improvisatory excerpt from Finnegans Wake. A key feature is Dwyer’s arrangement for guitar of Joyce’s only known composition, Bid Adieu, but here imaginatively set for classical guitar to Molly’s famously evocative soliloquy from Ulysses read by Rourke—one of the most feminist moments in European literature.

The show includes excerpts of ‘raw sensuality’ from Nuala O’Conner’s celebrated book Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce; and it also features Nicole Rourke’s hilarious and poignant text, The Lingerie Queen of Dublin, exploring the sensual worlds of Nora, Molly and Rourke herself, all three of whom spend a gloriously erotic Bloomsday together.

What people say about ‘Strings in the earth and air…’

‘Raucous, soul-searching, raunchy, confessional, but above all, insightfully intimate—a Joycean-inspired fusion of the spiritual and the profane.’ (Dr Caroline Elbay, Joycean Scholar)

‘The Bloomsday 2024 sell-out performance of Strings in the earth and air… was an exquisite celebration of Joyce’s fascination with music and one which the audience adored.’ (Darina Gallagher, Director, Joyce Centre, Dublin)