12 & 13 December 2025 at 7pm

Bewley’s Café Theatre and The James Joyce Centre presented Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol! Watch as you are transported back to Victorian London and follow the heartwarming journey of Ebenezer Scrooge on Friday & Saturday, 12 & 13 December 2025 at 7pm.

Performed by Michael James Ford, Sinead Murphy, and Sam Ford, the performance showed Scrooge’s ghostly journey to redemption, accompanied by a richly atmospheric live musical score. A sell-out hit at the Viking Theatre for the past nine years, it was the perfect way to experience Dickens’ masterpiece and share his world of phantoms, darkness, merriment, and everlasting goodwill.

“Don’t miss this delightful version of the classic.” Sunday Independent

“…fine dramatic storytelling…perfect for the season.” Red Curtain Review

“It lingers in the mind…it really is superb.” Donnchadh O’Laoire

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Culture, Communication and Sport.

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25 June 2025 at 2pm

The James Joyce Centre was delighted to host a literary event organised by the Embassy of Hungary in Dublin on Wednesday, 25 June 2025 at 2pm.The Embassy donated a copy of a limited edition two-volume 1947 Hungarian translation of Ulysses to the James Joyce Centre. On display were Hungarian artist Ferenc Martyn’s Ulysses, an exhibition featuring 24 illustrations of the novel from 1982. The event featured remarks by Ambassador Dr. Gergely Bánhegyi, a presentation on Hungarian links in Joyce’s work by Dr. Márta Goldmann delivered by Dr. Christine O’Neill, an overview of the Bloomsday Mural Project in Szombathely by Eszter Mary Price, a performance by the Hungarian Irish Theatre, and a reception with Hungarian wine and hors d’oeuvre.

Our special thanks to the Embassy for the donation as well as to Ambassador Bánhegyi, Ms. Price, the Embassy staff, the guest speakers and performers, and to all those who came.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Photos by Artem Kulinych

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30 May 2025 at 7.30pm

The James Joyce Centre was proud to host once again a performance of the Volta Theatre Company’s Counterparts & A Little Cloud, an adaptation of two short stories from Joyce’s debut work Dubliners, on Friday, 30 May 2025 at 7.30pm.

Joyce’s collection of short stories provides vivid ‘slices of life’ of early 20th century Dublin. Against the backdrop of a society in paralysis, a pair of Dublin lives are revealed in stark, sometimes brutal, scenes. In “Counterparts,” an ungainly, bad-tempered law clerk is determined to have a heavy night’s drinking, while in “A Little Cloud,” a sensitive soul is embittered by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, relatable and disturbing, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who remain entirely contemporary, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars.

Performed by Jim Roche and Liam Hourican in the iconic setting of the Joyce Centre’s Georgian drawing room, and featuring period music, this is an exquisite, intimate study of Joyce’s Dublin and its lives of quiet desperation.

The Volta Theatre Company is a collaboration between classically-trained actors and musicians, combining theatre with cabaret, jazz and sketch comedy. Its remit is to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Liam Hourican has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic, and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim Roche has starred in Normal People, Harry Wild, Blood 2, Vikings, Damo and Ivor, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, The Tudors, and iCandy. Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland and have collaborated in a wide variety of musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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15 May 2025 at 7.30pm

The James Joyce Centre in association with Anna Livia Creative hosted a performance by poet Jessica Traynor and artist Nicole Rourke on Thursday, 15 May 2025 at 7.30pm. They dig deep into the worlds of Motherhood/Non-Motherhood to explore the choices we (& the body) make, and the emotional and physical landscapes we navigate based on these choices.

The performance was be followed by a Q&A on the topic and a wine reception.

Nicole Rourke has been part of the Irish theatre and spoken word arena for more than three decades. She has featured with many theatre companies including Theatreworks, Storytellers, Yew Tree and Tmu-Na; and her international appearances include those at the London and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Glasgow International, Craw Festival Berlin, Singapore Arts Festival, and Konfrontacje Teatraine Poland. Rourke’s one-woman play, Baggage, was a smash hit at the SoloSIRENS festival in Dublin in 2019, and went on to be adapted to film reaching a global audience. Baggage will tour internationally in 2025. Her other notable success is Raven and the Crone, which premiered at The New Theatre for the First Fortnight Festival. Rourke’s spoken-word projects mark a distinctive originality within the genre. Tea or Gin, Gristle and Meeting Karma powerfully explore themes of sexuality, trauma, and resilience in monologues of extraordinary wit and profundity. Her latest piece, The Lingerie Queen of Crumlin, topped the bill at the James Joyce Centre Bloomsday celebrations in 2024. Nicole is a seasoned creative workshop facilitator and is co-director of Anna Livia Creative.

Jessica Traynor is the author of three critically acclaimed books of poetry. Her latest collection, Pit Lullabies, (Bloodaxe Books, 2022), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is the 2023 recipient of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award and is the 2023 Arts Council Writer in Residence at Galway University, and a Creative Fellow of UCD. She is poetry editor at Banshee Press.

‘Jessica Traynor [is] capable of creating canonical work which draws on a contemporary re-thinking of poetic traditions while finding a voice that is wholly her own.’ – Poetry Ireland Review

‘An absolute force of nature. Engaging, hilarious and fabulous….Nicole Rourke is a goddamn sparkling GENIUS’ – SoloSirens Festival Review

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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21 February 2025 at 6.30pm

The James Joyce Centre on Friday, February 21st at 6.30pm welcomed another delightful performance of 18 Ballads from James Joyce’s Ulysses by Val O’Donnell.

This collection of new ballads, based on characters featured in James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, was published in 2024. The collection consists of eighteen ballads written by Val O’Donnell and set to airs of music which are referred to in Ulysses or in other works of James Joyce. The collection includes short quotes from Ulysses, a note on the music and suggestions for accessing the original sheet music and performances of the airs chosen for the ballads.

After an inaugural performance on October 8th 2024, the James Joyce Centre was honoured to host another.

About Val

Val O’Donnell has a connection with the theatre for over 50 years as an actor, director and adaptor of Irish literature.

In 2011, Val established The JoyceStagers theatre company to perform his adaptations from the works of James Joyce. The JoyceStagers have performed “The Funeral of Paddy Dignam,” adapted by Val from the 6th episode of Ulysses, annually on Bloomsday at Glasnevin Cemetary. They have also performed his adaptations from Episodes 8, 12, and 16 at various locations in Dublin around Bloomsday. Val has a lifelong interest in music and plays piano. Email him at donnellvalo@gmail.com.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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25 January 2025 at 2.30pm

The James Joyce Centre is proud to present a lunchtime performance by Poems Ago on Saturday, January 25th at 2.30pm.

Folk duo Poems Ago perform original songs and poetry put to music. At the James Joyce Centre they will present a concert in which they explore the theme ‘Home’: Interweaving the writings by James Joyce with their own experiences of moving and living abroad and coming back home. Join us for an afternoon of acoustic music and poetry.

Poems Ago are Juliana Hahn on vocals, violin and keyboard and Remco Jacobs on vocals and guitar. More information about Poems Ago can be found on their website https://www.poemsago.com/.

Tickets are €10 and can be purchased here.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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12-22 December 2024 at 3pm & 7.30pm

The James Joyce Centre was delighted to host an AboutFACE Theatre production of Orson Welles’ Christmas Carol 12-22 December 2024.

The much-loved festive “radio play within a play” for all the family came back by public demand at a beautiful and evocative new venue. In this fast-moving, heartfelt comedy based on true events, radio superstar Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre gang are presenting “A Christmas Carol” in New York live ON-AIR on Christmas Eve 1938 . . . having just lost their Scrooge! Can Orson and his overworked cast survive the last minute chaos to give this Christmas Carol a happy ending?

Featuring a 45-minute version of A Christmas Carol in the 1930’s radio style with live sound effects and carols, this was a Christmas treat for the whole family, with a touch of old Hollywood glamour!

“Delightful…Works extraordinarily well.” Sunday Independent
“An absorbing success” Business Post
“Absolute joy to watch” The Arts Review

Starring Lizzy Morrissey, Michael Mullen, Anna Nugent, Paul Nugent, Eoin O’Sullivan, David Ryan and Tana Walsh
Directed by Kathleen Warner Yeates
Written by Paul Nugent
Costume Design by Tara McKeever
Set Design by Jennifer Keane

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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14-15 November 2024 at 7.30pm

The James Joyce Centre was proud to host once again a performance of the Volta Theatre Company’s Counterparts & A Little Cloud, an adaptation of two short stories from Joyce’s debut work Dubliners, on Thursday and Friday, 14 and 15 November 2024 at 7.30pm.

Joyce’s collection of short stories provides vivid ‘slices of life’ of early 20th century Dublin. Against the backdrop of a society in paralysis, a pair of Dublin lives are revealed in stark, sometimes brutal, scenes. In Counterparts, an ungainly, bad-tempered law clerk is determined to have a heavy night’s drinking, while in A Little Cloud, a sensitive soul is embittered by a meeting with an old university friend back from London. At once funny and tragic, relatable and disturbing, the stories are populated with an array of colourful characters who remain entirely contemporary, despite the bowler hats and Edwardian collars.

Performed by two actors in the iconic setting of the Joyce Centre’s Georgian drawing room, and featuring period music, this is an exquisite, intimate study of Joyce’s Dublin and its lives of quiet desperation.

Volta is a collaboration between classically-trained actors and musicians, combining theatre with cabaret, jazz and sketch comedy. Its remit is to bring classical theatre to a wide audience. Liam Hourican has worked with Shakespeare’s Globe, the Old Vic, and Second Age Theatre company and has written and performed sketch shows and comedy drama for Channel 4, RTE and the BBC. Jim Roche has starred in Normal People, Harry Wild, Blood 2, Vikings, Damo and Ivor, Killinaskully, The Mario Rosenstock Show, The Tudors, and iCandy. Musicians Feilimidh Nunan and Conor Sheil work with all the principal orchestras in Ireland and have collaborated in a wide variety of musical genres ranging from jazz to traditional music.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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16 October 2024 at 1pm

Following on from the success of their tour around James Joyce’s Ulysses, Janet Moran and Ronan Guilfoyle joined forces again, this time to explore the intricacies of Joyce’s final novel Finnegan’s Wake, via ‘Earwicker’s Dream’ — an entertaining and fascinating journey through this classic book via jazz and spoken word on Wednesday, 16 October 2024 at 1pm. Janet is an award-winning actor and playwright, and Ronan is one of Ireland’s best-known jazz musicians, with an international career spanning more than forty years. Earwicker’s Dream was a concert piece that unites spoken word, jazz composition and improvisation, and explores the central characters in the book.

In Earwicker’s Dream Workshop, Janet and Ronan discussed how they put the project together, how they made the choices on choosing text, how the music interacts with the spoken word, and how the improvisation contained in the music allows for real-time interaction between Joyce’s prose and creative music. The workshop included live demonstrations of how the text and music work together.

The full concert piece will be performed at the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, County Wicklow, on Thursday 24th of October.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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6 October 2024 at 4pm

Antelope Productions in association with Field Exchange presented The Company of Trees: A Celebration in Words and Music on Sunday, 6 October 2024 at 4pm.

The Company of Trees celebrated our long and complex relationship with the forest world through literature and music. Using some of the great poetry, prose, music and song that trees have inspired over the centuries, the show explored their emotional, aesthetic, environmental and philosophical impact on our daily lives.

The Company of Trees journeyed through the natural cycle from planting to maturity and entertained, informed, provoked and, above all, raise awareness of a relationship now facing unprecedented threat.

The Company of Trees was performed by Michael James Ford, Susannah De Wrixon and Kyle Hixon in collaboration with the Delmaine String Quartet. It also featured striking photographic and video images by Brendan Keogh.

The James Joyce Centre is supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

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