Captivating Performances Bring Haunting Story to Life in 'the Dead'

Summary

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It sounds like such a simple concept -- a musical holiday party thrown in turn-of-the-century Dublin by two elderly sisters and their beloved niece. Family and friends gather to sing and dance, feast and laugh.

In James Joyce's hands, this warm and comfortable setting is packed with political confrontation, sly needling, dashed hopes, crippling embarrassment, intoxicated indiscretions, religious scandal, a romantic revelation and emotional outbursts, capped by narrator Gabriel Conroy's cry, "I'm sick of me own country!"

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Extract

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Captivating Performances Bring Haunting Story to Life in 'the Dead'

The sweet singing, agile dancing and witty conversation are amusing enough, the churning cauldron of social constraint and buried emotion that simmers beneath the veneer of content...

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