Finnegan’s Wake

Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble presents Finnegan’s Wake, a new work for the theatre created from the classic modernist novel by James Joyce. Adapted and directed by Obie-Award winning director Barbara Vann with original music by Christopher McGlumphy.

Set in a Dublin pub, Finnegan’s Wake is a boisterous, mind-bending theatrical experience that traces one night in the life of Finnegan, who dreams of primal guilt and is whirled into a comic nightmare as family history and world history become one and the same. The entire Finnegan clan–along with various denizens of the pub–live, fight, drink, dream, assume the roles of mythic & historical figures, and hope that their lives will eventually lead to some kind of spiritual rebirth. Their stories are brought to life by an inventive cast of 10, who act, chant, sing, dance, stomp and howl the piece. With its juxtapositions of the elevated and the vulgar, “there’s lots of fun at Finnegan’s Wake.”