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Not I: An Installation by Neil Jordan

8 August - 9 September 2012, the Annex, IMMA @ NCH atEarlsfort Terrace

Neil Jordan, Not I,2000, an adaptation for film of the play Not I, 1972 by Samue l Beckett,directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Blue Angel Films. 6 screen installation with sound. 12mins, Dimensions variable, Collection I rish Museum of Modern Art, Donation, 2000.Production still by Pat Redm ond, Company of Wolves ireLtd, Co. Dublin

This unique film-based installation, directed by Neil Jordan and featuring theAmerican actressJulianne Moore, is based on Samuel Beckett's play Not I,1972.Not Ipresents anactress seated on a stage with just her mouth visible. Themouth then delivers a long monologue, a constant stream of consciousness.Becketts friend, and one of his favourite interpreters of his work, Billie Whitelawrecalled her performance of the original work: I defy anyone to come up with amore intense theatrical experience than Samuel Becketts Not I. In otherwisecomplete darkness, a disembodied female mouth, known as Mouth, about eightfeet above the stage, de livers a hyper-rapid stream of consciousness, a mixtureof reminiscence and evasion, an existentially terrifying babble, hinting at deeptrauma and extinction of self.

Neil Jordan filmed his interpretation, which is 13 minutes in duration, from multipleangles in long, complete, 13-minute takes, since the piece only reveals itselfthrough the pressure and physical demands of the uninterrupted performance ofthe text. Realising that eachtake had its own integrityJordan developed his original

film version into a multi-screeninstallation in which Mooresmouth appears on s ix screensarranged in a circularconfiguration. For thisinstallation while the artworkmaintains its essentially circular

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8/12/2019 Not I_ an Installation by Neil Jordan

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7/2/2014 Not I: An Installation by Neil Jordan

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,Annex, enables the use ofespecially large screens tocreate an enhanced, spatiallyimmersive experience.

Not Iis part of a unique and ambitious project, Beckett on Film, the brain-child ofMichael Colgan, Director of the Gate Theatre, in which each of Beckettss 19 playswere committed to film in 2000-2001. Each had a different film director, chargedwith adapting the demands of Becketts plays to film while adhering to hisexacting stage directions. Not Iwas adapted for film by Neil Jordan as part of theproject and donated to IMMA in 2001.

Born in 1950 in Sligo, Neil Jordan began his career as a writer. Neil Jordan's filmcareer began with the role of creative consultant on John Boorman's Excaliburin1981. In 1982 Jordan wrote and directed his first feature filmAngel.Since then hehas written, directed and produced more than fifteen films, including Company ofWolves(1984), Mona Lisa(1986), The Crying Game(1992), Interview With TheVampire(1994), Michael Collins(1995), The Butcher Boy(1996), The End of TheAffair(1999), The Good Thief(2002), Breakfast On Pluto(2005) and Ondine (2009).His films have been honoured w ith numerous awards worldwide, including anOscar, BAFTAs, Golden Globes , A Golden Lion from The Venice Film Festival and aSilver Bear from Berlin. He has been awarded five honorary doctorates and in1996 he was appointed Officer of the French Ordres des Artes e t des Le ttres.Neil Jordan has more recently written, directed and produced the television seriesThe Borgias, with Octagon Films, and Showtime. His latest film Byzantium iscurrently in post-production.

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