“The Talk Became Theatrical”: Dubliners on Tour in Portugal

Abstract

Balloonatics Theatre Company, celebrating their 30th anniversary in
2014, have specialised in adaptations of literary texts, especially those by Joyce, for the theatre since 1984. In the summer of 2014, Culture Ireland offered them the opportunity of performing two stories from Dubliners to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Joyce’s work. Balloonatics, took “The Boarding House” and “Counterparts”, written in Trieste during the “torrid” summer in 1905, to three university cities in Portugal: Lisbon, Oporto and Braga. It seemed appropriate to stage these stories in Portugal, with the approaching summer heat at the end of June possibly reflecting something of the atmosphere in which they were first conceived. This article frames the
process of Balloonatics’ approach to and dramatisation of the texts within a discussion of the theatrical line in Joyce’s life and career, locating the roots of Dubliners’ use of the theatrical in Joyce’s earlier writings.