Sometimes, the smallest gestures are those that matter most. A smile, a hand squeeze, a tentative step forward. These were the movements that brought James Joyce’s The Dead vividly to life in this production conceived for The Fourth Choir by director Séamus Rea, which saw a thoughtfully edited version of Joyce’s text (the final story in his collection The Dubliners) read by Niamh Cusack and interwoven with unaccompanied choral numbers. But “read” does Cusack a disservice. Her poise – moving with the rhythmic awareness of a dancer, drawing the singers around her into another world with only a script and a flight of stairs as props and scenery – was vital to this performance’s emotive power.
Joyce’s story unfolds at “the Misses Morkan’s annual dance”, a noisy, multigenerational gathering where the manners and memories of an older Ireland haunt the present. Music appears throughout: overheard, sung, discussed, remembered by the assembled company. A folk song, The Lass of Aughrim, triggers thoughts of a long-dead “delicate boy”. Sensitively arranged by the choir’s musical director, Jamie Powe, the number was sung, initially unaccompanied and offstage, by tenor Gareth Moss – one of several impressive step-out solos from this exceptionally polished LGBTQ+ chamber choir.
