‘The Dead, 1904’ offers cause to re-Joyce (Off Broadway review)
9 / 10
Devotees of Joyce may quibble about this staging. Unlike the quintessentially Irish author’s original story or John Huston’s memorable 1987 film adaptation, the script by Paul Muldoon and Jean Hanff Korelitz doesn’t really explore the interior monologue of its taciturn and writerly hero, Gabriel, except in a well-executed final scene where he and Gretta settle down after the party in their hotel bedroom (situated for this show on the third floor, just above the dining room, with the audience cramming in on one side to face the windows overlooking Central Park and the Met). Here, Gretta drifts off to sleep after confessing the memory of a girlhood love that the evening’s festivities have jostled back into her consciousness. And Gabriel is finally able to articulate aloud his deep-seated anxieties about the choices he’s made as well as about the overall evanescence of life — as snow magically falls just outside the window. The Dead, 1904 captures the sublimely melancholy mood of Joyce’s story, like a melody from the past that’s bubbled back into our consciousness, and that alone is cause to rejoice.
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