Interview with Michael Casey, the Author

We met Michael Casey, the author of Joyce's Wake, to understand his motivation for writing Joyce's Wake...

Michael, What is the idea behind the play Joyce’s Wake?

James Joyce is an endlessly fascinating character, as well as being a giant of modern literature. And his relationship with Nora Barnacle is also intriguing. It almost comes as a surprise to learn that they had two children. And it is a shock to discover that these children were born in paupers’ wards, were ‘dragged up’ by their parents, transferred from one school to another in Trieste and Paris, were ‘incoherent in three languages’, and had no hope of acquiring any third-level education. During the Paris years, they were ‘strangers in a strange land’. To add insult to injury they must have known that their father was using them as material for his fictional characters. It is time that some attention be paid to Lucia and Giorgio, the innocent victims of Joyce’s genius.

What is your relationship with Finnegan’s Wake?

‘Finnegans Wake’is probably the most complex and multi-layered book ever written. It seems to be about one night in the life of a family, in much the same way that ‘Ulysses’ was about one day in the life of an extended family. FW is dream-like, however, and the characters and places change and morph into each other. I am happy to leave detailed interpretations of plot to Wakean scholars.

I do, however, have some opinions about the book. The first is that the rhythm and fantasy of the book had a special resonance for Lucia who was a superb expressionist dancer and who also loved the sound of running water. She both inspired Joyce and served as a template for two or possibly more characters in the book. She probably understood the Wake better than most literary critics.

Second, I believe that the book was in a sense an act of atonement by Joyce for his failure as a father.

Third, he may also have believed that Lucia and Giorgio could be happy in the dream -world of the Wake, because they were largely unprepared to survive in the real world.

These views underpin the dramatization.

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