The cautionary tale of Irish lion tamer Bill Stephens is told in the hour-long documentary Fortune's Wheel (Monday, RTÉ One).
The story beings in Fairview Green in Dublin when one of Stephens’ lionesses escapes causing mayhem in the neighbourhood before it is eventually shot. It’s a truth is stranger than fiction tale that grabbed headlines at the time, but the problems with this toothless telling is that unlike the lioness on the loose, it lacks pace and intent.
Dublin-born director and producer Joe Lee relies on numerous locals to narrate Stephens’ story, and they do so with charm and enthusiasm, but with so many stationary talking heads, the documentary soon starts to feels stagnant.
Twenty-three minutes in, we finally get to the subject – Captain Bill Stephens himself. Stephens certainly lived a life less ordinary, keeping snakes, lions and monkeys. We learn how he was desperate to make it in the US, and there’s added interest with the love story between him and his wife Mai.
With no moving footage of Stephens or his daring circus act, NCAD graduate Lee has to rely on newspaper cuttings and old photographs to illustrate. He’s clearly taken with his subject, but the first- and second-hand testimony he has taken great care to record needs some ruthless editing. The whole film desperately needs music, animation, something, anything to make it move.
Imagery and information are repeated (we hear more than once that Stephens was musical, considered a bit of a looker, that his wife was “dark”, that his family didn’t care for her, that he wanted to go to America), yet we discover precious little about what drove Stephens to his curious career. And the most interesting question of how he trained lions to let him stick his head in their mouths is neglected completely.
Even in the penultimate chapter, where Stephens’ fate is revealed, there is no drama, no tension – a miaow rather than a roar.
Lee does succeed in transporting us back to 1950s Dublin – and the piece has a lovely nostalgic feel.
But in the end there’s far too much tell and not nearly enough show.
