This is a free event and starts at 19.00 on Monday April the 1 st, 2019.
The Festival of Fools celebrates the work of Irish novelist, playwright and satirist, Brian O’Nolan who is perhaps best known under his pen name Flann O'Brien and who, along with Joyce and Beckett, makes up the Holy Trinity of modern Irish literature. His satirical columns in the Irish Times and his Irish language novel An Béal Bocht were written under the name Myles na gCopaleen. He is regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature.
We hope that our program will delight both those who are familiar with his bizarre sense of humour and modernist metafiction as well as those yet to discover his work….
Programme:
‘I HALF KNEW MY MOTHER’ –
Readings by Actor Jim Roche from Flann O’Brien’s Seminal Satirical Novel ‘The Hard Life’. ‘The Hard Life’ is Flann O’Brien’s fourth novel and is perhaps his most biting in terms of satire of Irish life and society. At the time, it was also his most successful novel – the first run of it selling out within 48 hours. As is the trademark of Flann’s work, the novel is populated with colourful and hilarious characters whose foibles and conversation continue to raise much laughter to this day. The atmosphere of squalor that pervades the novel is punctuated by hilarious observations about Irish society of the time. ‘The Hard Life’ is a prime example Flann’s caustic wit and extremely funny dialog.
Dublin based and Wexford born actor Jim Roche will be dramatizing readings from the novel as part of a work in progress where he is adapting the novel for a one man show. This is a rare opportunity to hear extracts from one of Flann’s lesser known works dramatically enacted and really should not be missed.
‘PÅ SVØM-TO-FUGLER’ –
Translator Bjørn Herrman will read from his Norwegian translation of ‘At Swim-Two Birds’. This was the first of Flann O’Brien’s books to be translated into Norwegian in 1998.
‘YOUR ONLY MAN’ –
Actor Jim Roche will perform ‘Your Only Man’ which is a re-working of Flann’s well known comedy poem ‘A Pint of Plain’. Jim has collaborated with one of Ireland’s leading composers for theatre, Denis Clohessy, to take the original text and turn it into an atmospheric and weirdly re-imagined performance piece.
‘READING BY POET DAVID TOMS’ –
Oslo based Irish poet, David Toms, will surprise us with a reading of his choice from any of Flann’s works.
Links:
Jim Roche - http://www.osullivantheactorsagent.com/site/clients.php?section_id=197
Bjørn Herrman - http://oversetterforeningen.no/flann-obrien-pa-svom-to-fugler/
David Toms - https://thesidelinesofhistory.wordpress.com/about/
HOW TO GET THERE – Cappelens Forslag, Oslo’s most eclectic independent bookshop, is just off Storgata on Bernt
Ankers Gate 4. Here is a link to the map - https://goo.gl/maps/XykxueGZny82
This event is produced by The Oslo Bloomsday Society (www.facebook.com/bloomsdayoslo)
