‘Bloomsday’ brings a literary masterpiece to life

‘Bloomsday’ – and Bloomsday-mania – has come to Long Island. The world of James Joyce and his major protagonist Leopold Bloom will be welcomed at Molloy College’s Madison Theatre on June 16, as Molloy College’s Irish Studies Institute and the James Joyce Society host the first major Bloomsday gathering on Long Island.
Joyce has garnered an epic following since his epic novel “Ulysses” was first published in 1922. Now thousands of Joyce enthusiasts worldwide assemble for Bloomsday each year at the annual celebration of the novelist and his monumental work. This literary festival, which derives its name from the novel’s central character Leopold Bloom, has taken place – in its many incarnations – every year since 1954. And always on June 16. That’s the sole date in which the novel, set in Dublin, Ireland, recounts the events of Bloom –an ordinary Dubliner – as he goes about the routine of his day.
Bloomsday is celebrated in at least 60 countries worldwide, but nowhere so imaginatively, of course, as in Dublin. There the events of Leopold Bloom’s day are reenacted by anyone who cares to participate, and his itinerary is followed all across Dublin.
“Bloomsday is an international celebration and we are pleased that the many Joyce fans in the Long Island region now have an event of their own,” said Dr. Nicholas Fargnoli, Dean of Molloy’s Division of Humanities and President of the James Joyce Society. “It is a perfect event for the new theater.”
Molloy’s program centers around Neil Hickey’s “Shades of Joyce,” a four-scene play based on Flann O’Brien’s “The Dalkey Archive,” a satiric novel that has Joyce as one of its main characters. Interspersed within the scenes of the short play are musical interludes with song and Irish step dancing. Performers include Molloy Music Professor Dan McGann on guitar and Alice Sorensen on piano, with vocalists Francesca Welhous, Melissa Sandoval. Alicia Drexel, and Emily Willis.