A production guaranteed to intrigue Irish audiences is included in today's Dublin Film Festival programme. Austrian theatre director Kurt Palm's cinema debut, In Schwimmen-Zwei Vogel, is an imaginative and hilarious screen version of Flann O'Brien's subversive comic masterpiece, At Swim-Two-Birds.
Not only did tickets for this afternoon's showing at the Screen Cinema, D'Olier Street, immediately sell out; demand caused festival organisers to transfer the low-budget film, which only cost the equivalent of $1 million, to a larger auditorium within the cinema. Again, instant sell-out.
Although the German translation of the novel did not appear until 1989, 50 years after its original publication, it - and Flann O'Brien's work in general - has since acquired cult status in Germany and Austria.
Ironically O'Brien, Dr Briain O Nuallain, always held Hitler responsible for the sluggish start he felt At Swim-Two-Birds had suffered: world wars do tend to overshadow novels. Despite the author's fears, the surreal genius of his work was recognised.
In 1965 The Dalkey Archive was produced on the Dublin stage. Flann O'Brien died in 1966, aged 56. By the late 1960s, three writers were working on stage adaptations of At Swim-Two-Birds, all with an eye to the Abbey stage. The version which earned the approval of the writer's widow, Evelyn, was by Dublin writer Audrey Welsh.
Now 73, Mrs Welsh, born Audrey Vigne McDaniel, graduated from Trinity College with a degree in English and Spanish and acted at the Gate Theatre where her actor husband, the late John Welsh, was a member of the Longford Players.
Welsh became more interested in writing and wrote several plays, including The Explorers, and collaborated with Ronald Senator on several musical works for children.
Her first impression of the Joycean At Swim-Two-Birds was of bewilderment. The second reading, she later recalled, proved "incredibly funny" and she became a serious reader of it.
Aware of the difficulty of attempting a stage version of an admittedly challenging book which defies conventional narrative, Welsh was determined to maintain its fantastical element.
The first production opened at the Peacock Theatre with the Abbey Players on February 12th, 1970. Directed by the late Alan Simpson, the action was apparently well served by John Ryan's innovative multi-level set. The production was well reviewed, and it was widely agreed that Audrey Welsh had kept close to O'Brien's text and to the mood of the book.
Several of the individual performances were described as tours de force, particularly that of puppeteer Eugene Lambert as the Pooka.
Many of the performers played more than one role, and the original cast also included Eamon Keane as Bran and William Tracy; Des Cave as Lamont, "Shorty" Andrews and Kelly; while Joan O'Hara appeared as the Maidservant, Teresa and Sheila Lamont. Pat Laffan was Furriskey. After an extended run at the Peacock, the show was transferred to the Abbey stage.
Audrey Welsh was always interested in a film version. Speaking on behalf of her mother who is ill, actress Lucy Vigne Welsh said: "Audrey was convinced that it could be done on film and hoped that an Irish director might do something with it." Vigne Welsh is most widely known as the Hon Fiona March in Glenroe.
She has already seen the film on video. "I enjoyed it and I know my late brother John would have loved it as well. Simon, our elder brother, is looking forward to seeing it. Like Audrey, Kurt Palm has kept very close to Flann O'Brien's original work. I hope that the enormous interest in Dublin in this film will encourage the Abbey to revive Mum's adapation."
It has not been staged here since November 1981 when the cast for the three-week run at the Peacock included its director Eamon Morrissey, Kevin McHugh, Tom Hickey, May Cluskey and Emmet Bergin.
The stage and film rights of At Swim-Two-Birds are jointly owned by the O Nuallain literary estate and Audrey Welsh. Kurt Palm has a licence permitting the screening of his film only in German-speaking countries and at European film festivals.
