No rebellion survives without the heroic stories that follow. The will for liberation kindles the fire of rebellion, the same will that fuels the legends that arise thereafter. Irish history remembers 1916 as a milestone in its independence not just through the repetition of facts but through the stories that inflate its bold spirit. Both fiction and fantasy cover the canon of Easter Rising myth; extracting precise truth from any of them is tedious labour. Yet the real truth they bear is not in the dates and names they provide but the meaning they give to 1916.
Jamie O’Neill’s At Swim, Two Boys marks one of these stories. In its solitary corner lies a poignant perspective which made it an instant classic upon being published in 2001. To fans the world over, O’Neill’s beautiful tale neither glorifies nor condemns Easter Rising, but instead captures what’s at stake in the taking up of arms: love, life and innocence.
The book’s teenage heroes, Jim and Doyler, latch on to each other in the midst of a mutinous Dublin. Together, they find no fury worth fighting for but love worth living for, and when their story greeted the public on September 11th, 2001, they slowly gained welcome in a world worn with violence.
Still, even stories need new life and new spurs to keep abreast. Like the rebellions that give birth to them, myths take their own revival and new ways of being told. For O’Neill’s book, revival has taken the form of adaptation, in dance with Welsh company Earthfall in 2005 and onstage in 2014 with French-language drama Deux garçons la mer. Even a musical workshop has taken shape under the lights of London’s West End. This June, however, marks the first time At Swim, Two Boys will take to the stage in its native city and country, where emerging theatre company Forty Feet has adapted the work into a breathtaking new play which honours both O’Neill’s storytelling and his stunning use of language.
Their process began last autumn, when adapter Tim Scott spent months turning book into script. A mammoth of a novel to start with, so too came a mammoth of a first draft in December, and once auditions were held and the show was cast in February, Scott and dramaturg Eleanor White cut out a piece which spoke to the response of their actors. Dramaturgy has been their guide throughout the adaptation process. Rewrites, cuts and new editions all emerged to highlight the strengths of their cast, and by the beginning of April, they had their final script. Their conclusion: adapting O’Neill’s cherished and gargantuan novel is no simple feat.
“To start anywhere, you have to believe you can produce anything worthy of the original, and that never stops,” reflects producer and adapter Tim Scott. “But Jamie [O’Neill] has been very supportive throughout all of this, and I think he’s enjoyed what we’ve done with the text, and that’s been encouraging.”
The grace and challenge of O’Neill’s work is how he defines characters in the way they speak. At Swim, Two Boys carries an ensemble of old-world figures with old-world parlance, and Forty Feet’s adaptation has aimed not to lose this integral element of the story. Speeches, dialogue and even song all bear the monikers of O’Neill’s fluid text. Onstage, they swell and dissipate in rapid succession, keeping an enticing flow which does justice to the length of the piece.
“Length has been a challenge from the start,” concedes dramaturg and assistant director Eleanor White. “Plays over two hours can’t afford any dull moments.” In response, the team at Forty Feet have placed much stock in the richness of dialogue to nuance their show, and, of course, their cast to bring it to life.
With their own revival in hand, this young theatre troupe recalls what made At Swim, Two Boys so captivating from the start. O’Neill’s work contains age-old elements which never fail to touch the human heart: self-liberation, the endurance of friendship and, perhaps most prominently, the power of young love. Like heroes before their time, Jim and Doyler live a love which diminishes war’s hatred but cannot escape war’s destruction. Even in a world that has no word for their relationship, they can’t evade the perilous path of armed strife. Still, their bond unfolds and touches an array of Dubliners in unforeseen ways.
Giving these characters new life onstage honours not just the story but its time and place, as well. Nothing thrills like seeing a city portrayed to an audience of its inhabitants, and in the wake of the centenary, Forty Feet resurrects a world that weighs heavy on the national mindset. Solemnity, closure and moralising often lead talk of 1916, and letting distance from the time build distance from the people becomes second nature. As a living, breathing play, At Swim, Two Boys looks to break that distance again. It invites Dublin to reflect on a chapter from the past through a story that’s earned its place in national mythology. It invites Jim and Doyler to be witnessed in an Ireland after the passage of marriage equality legislation.
An experience without reflection is only half an experience, and the realm of the stage provides that reflection, where player and audience share a presence unlike any other. Together, they revive the heroic Jim and Doyler and all of 1916 with them. These heroes, however, don’t stoke the fiery spirit of rebellion but rather what truly matters in the wake of brutal violence.
