“The Trilogy of Jesus
Located in the Space Upstairs at the Project Arts Centre
★★★★★
In JM Coetzee’s book, The Childhood of Jesus, which initiates his Jesus trilogy, we start with voyagers reaching the unfamiliar Novilla by ship. The moment they set foot on land, they receive new identities and former lives fade away into oblivion. This distinctive concept mirrors the attributes of a theater, as the actors inhabit a new persona and abide by the inherent rules of the performance. Hatch Theatre Company’s fresh play seems to encapsulate the beguiling mystery and melancholy imbued in Coetzee’s literary works with its expertly layered adaptation.
The play is ingeniously adapted by Eoghan Quinn in alignment with director Annabelle Comyn’s vision, entailing some daring decisions. Adapting Coetzee’s trilogy poses one major hurdle – the central character is a child of five years. To bypass this, Quinn crafts David, the child, as a pervasive enigma, voiced by various performers on stage, effectively representing the child’s unusual gravity and influence.
In Act One, Simon (portrayed by Fergal McElherron) assumes the guardian role of David, hoping to reunite him with his mother. However, finding her in the foreign socialist dystopia of Novilla is no easy task, where people seem complacent with their bland existences; sex and meat eating are non-existent, and irony is a foreign concept. Here, the forests have perfectly spaced trees, and labour is reduced to hauling grain sacks into a storehouse for rats. Tom Piper’s unpretentious, industrial setting, complemented with arctic-white lights and smoke, effectively mirrors this act’s functional and austere environment.
The plot takes a twist when Simon and David encounter a woman named Inés (portrayed by Elaine O’Dwyer) who spontaneously agrees to pose as the boy’s mother, leading to a distorted family unit’s formation. In Act Two, they escape to a neighbouring town, Estrella, where David joins the Academy, a mysterious dance school. The stunning Ana Magdalena governs the school, and the janitor, Dmitri, appears to be smitten with her.
The Trilogy of Jesus: An artfully layered adaptation that captures the sorrow and enigma of JM Coetzee’s novels.
Our verdict: Initially, this labyrinthine play prompts the question, ‘Will it continue in this evolutionary fashion to the end?’ However, surrender to its quirky nature reaps rich rewards.”
“Freefalling” is an exceptional and unbelievable tale that would be hard to fabricate. Enda Walsh’s fresh work, “Safe House,” is an intensely bleak musical sequence. As Piper’s concept develops, it turns more sophisticated and enchanting with the transformation of industrial wooden planks sliding apart to disclose mirrored ballet chambers, replacing work uniforms with evening attire. David blends seamlessly into this spellbinding environment. At his traditional school in Novilla, he had difficulties with numbers as basic as one to four. Yet in the Academy, he doesn’t need to. He is capable of expressing the deep mystery behind a number through interpretative dance.
“The Jesus Trilogy” primarily investigates how we cope in a world that is hard to comprehend. Simon, embodying the everyman persona perfectly, forwards logical inquiries and receives cryptic answers in return. Upon struggling to understand, he faces mockery, particularly from David, who appears to be nearer to the unfathomable enigma of creation, despite lacking any practical wisdom. As the drama closes, its various layers of metaphor converge to deliver a heart-wrenching clarity of emotion and morality. According to the play, the only type of knowledge of any value cannot be found through logic.
The show carries on at the Project Arts Centre, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, and will remain until Saturday, October 19th.