James Joyce on the Witches’ Sabbath
Compañía Teatral Quinto Piso
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Drama/ 13 Characters, 9 men, 4 women, doubling possible/ Full Length, Two Parts

Synopsis: 1934. Kusnacht, Switzerland. Herr Dr. Gustav Jung’s clinic for the mentally ill. One of the patients is Miss Lucia Joyce. In a nightmarish atmosphere, her father, the Irish writer James Joyce, is pressed by the ghosts of his past to revisit his life, and his relationship with a daughter lost to madness and love for him.

The ghosts gradually become the protagonists of the drama. In song and word, they reconstruct the fragments of Joyce’s love-hate bond with Lucia, as well as his resentment towards Ireland, which ultimately led him to wander in exile.

They also become a Greek chorus in honor of the black bard William Blake, god of metaphysics. Drawing on the 16 engravings that illustrate his poem “The Gates of Paradise”, the poet opens up Joyce’s whole life, past, present and future.

Blake’s prophecies and Lucia’s phobic anguish plunge Joyce into his own Walpurgis Night. As the ghosts of his unconscious dance before him, to the sound of Monteverdi’s “Addio terra, addio cielo”, he lives out his own death and the heartrending anguish of having to abandon Lucia to her madness.

About the Playwright: Giuseppe Cafiero lives in the Tuscan countryside, in Lucignano, in the province of Arezzo, Italy.

Born in Naples, he spent his childhood in several Italian cities. In Bologna, he frequented the intellectual circles at Roberto Roversi‘s renowned bookstore, Palma Verde. The first part of his novel James Joyce — Rome and Other Stories was initially published in one of the bookstore’s influential magazines.

Cafiero later worked for various radio producers, including Radio Capodistria and Italian Swiss Radio. Moving to Tuscany, he was finally able to devote himself to reading and pursuing his literary work.

Other work for radio includes collaborations with the RAI, Radio Sveringes, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He has also written re-editions, free adaptations, and translations based on the work of an extensive spectrum of authors, from Shakespeare to O’Neill, Raspe to Daudet, Toller to Brecht.

In addition to James Joyce — Rome and Other Stories, Cafiero has published the bio-fictions Vincent van Gogh and Gustave Flaubert: The Ambiguity of Imagination.

The Valiant
Shaw Festival
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Drama/ 4 Men, 1 Woman, or non-binary/ One Act

Synopsis: Adapted from the original by Holworthy Hall and Robert Middlemass, The Valiant tells the story of James Dyke, a confessed killer who has been sentenced to die. As he awaits execution at a prison in Connecticut, the warden, chaplain, and others fight to learn his real identity and why he is so determined to take this secret with him to the grave. Then, on the night of Dyke’s execution, a young woman shows up adamant that this prisoner is her long-lost brother.

We are taken through many twists and turns, as she tries to unlock Dyke’s past with questions and triggers. Is he, or isn’t he, her brother? Shakespeare himself will be conjured to try to extract the truth.

The Valiant’s ending is as shocking and moving as any ending seen or heard on the stage. Family, history, love, mystery, poetry, relationships, and war are all brought together in this brilliant adaptation of this well-known one-act play.

About the Playwright: Lee is an Assistant Professor in Acting at The University of Windsor, School of Dramatic Art, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Wilson holds Canadian, British and Irish citizenship.

In 2019, his production of A Fear and Loathing Actor in Dublin by Mark McCauley premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Theatre@36 in Dublin, Ireland. While living in Ireland, he directed the world premieres of Running with Dinosaurs by Nadine Flynn (The New Theatre); The Eurydice Project by Joanna Crawley (The Project Arts Centre Main Space); Fray by Margaret Perry and Pork by Nadine Flynn (Smock Alley); and The Sea Brothers by Padraig Colum/Joanna Crawley (O’Reilly Theatre/The Lir). In addition, his critically acclaimed production of East of Berlin by Hannah Moscovitch played to sold out houses at The Project Arts Centre in 2014/15. Lee was the Associate Director to Joe Dowling on Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge at The Gate Theatre, Dublin for the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2015.

His Canadian work includes being the founding artistic director of Resurgence Theatre Company in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada where he directed critically acclaimed productions of Hamlet, Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet. In 2013, he was nominated by his peers for the Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award for his outstanding contribution to the classics and Shakespeare performance in Canada. This award is administered by the Globe Theatre in England (Globe Centre in Canada) and recognized Lee as one of the most exciting young directors of Shakespeare in his native home of Canada.

His Canadian work includes being one of a handful of directors who participated in the Inaugural Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directors at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. As part of this program, he was the resident director to Des McAnuff on The Who’s Tommy and The Tempest film and stage production starring Christopher Plummer. Other credits at Stratford include assistant director to Antoni Cimolino on As You Like It and to Leon Rubin on Measure for Measure. He was the apprentice artistic director/artistic associate at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, Canada (2008/2009 season). In 2008, Lee was invited to The Old Vic in London, England to participate in a directing and writing workshop with the Peter Hall Company. He was an Intern Director at the Shaw Festival during the 2005/2006 season in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada; and the Resident Director in the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 2004/2005. In 2003/2004, he was awarded the Urjo Kareda Residency Grant to study directing/artistic direction with Richard Rose at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Canada. Lee started off his professional career as a member of the Inaugural Soulpepper Training Company studying acting, design, and directing with his mentor Robin Phillips.

Lee is an associate member of ADA (Association of Drama Adjudicators) in Ireland and holds an MFA in Directing from The Lir, Irelands National Academy of Dramatic Art, Trinity College, Dublin; and a BFA in Acting from Ryerson Theatre School, Toronto, Canada.