The posters for Tom Gallacher’s play Mr Joyce is Leaving Paris had several incarnations. This brilliant play began its life in a Soho basement where the poster was not much more than a dashed off pen and ink scrawl.
In Dublin (where the play was interrupted by court action – see Are You Going to do That Little Jump? – The Adventure Continues) – there was no image at all, just hand-bills and plain text posters, but we sold out because of the notoriety of the action brought against us by a dog-in-the manger individual.
Then, when we brought the play back from Ireland to the King’s Head Theatre there was another scrawly version to start with, but… a couple more shillings were laid out when the play returned BY POPULAR DEMAND.
All the posters used versions of a brilliant line portrait of James Joyce, who had the good fortune to possess an internationally recognisable physiognomy. On one version, though, we forgot the author’s name and went round writing it in, in red ink.
