There was more magic at work in the Peacock this week with Ali Curran, again, at its centre. The theatre's artistic director has delivered a series of exciting productions all summer, with Hollywood stars in the mix to boot. This week, it was the first English version on stage of Lolita, in a co- production with the Corn Exchange.
In the foyer on the night of the opening was The Edge, who came along with his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, board member of the Corn Exchange. John McColgan of Riverdance was there, too, as were Vallejo Gantner, director of Dublin's Fringe Festival, director Lynne Parker and Marie Donnelly, of the Irish Hospice Foundation.
According to Corn Exchange's general manager Jenny Huston, a staging of the Vladimir Nabokov screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's film, has never been performed on stage before in English.
Annie Ryan, the play's director, whose face will be familiar to viewers of the television series Bachelor's Walk, said the idea to stage Lolita came from her mother, Pat Ryan, who was visiting from Florida.
"To our delight, we were granted the rights to adapt," said Ryan. "We knew we wanted to do a commedia dell'arte in the Peacock. We read a whole lot of plays with Ali. Lolita fit the bill." The production "was deeply collaborative", she said.
When the actors bounce on stage with painted faces and jerky movements, it's to enhance and "brutally expose" their characters' human emotions. To perfect the dramatic style of commedia dell'arte is very difficult, said Ryan.
"When the dialogue is really heightened, that's where the style is best," she explained.
Adapted by Ryan's husband, the playwright Michael West, she said: "We've cut the four and a half hours of screenplay to bits".
Adapting the screenplay was a challenge, West explained, in that "what's difficult is that the book happens in Humbert's head. To take it out into the world changes the perspective. It's in the audience's perspective. That's the challenge."
"It's an important story," said West. In light of stories about child sex abuse and paedophilia? "Let people make their own connections. It's on everybody's mind," he said.
Lolita runs until Saturday, September 28th.