Bloomsday in Melbourne

The 2016 Bloomsday in Melbourne festival celebrates 100 years since the first publication of Joyce’s first novel, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' with an original adaptation for the stage. It will stage Joyce’s popular first novel, which interrogates the notion of the artist as hero and dissident. Bloomsday’s Stephen Daedalus, played by Matt Dorning, is a rebel with a cause, a rebel without pause – he takes on the immense job of freeing himself from the assumptions of his family, his tribe, his church, his nation, and the art tradition he inherited. How can he make use of what they offer which is so seductive, and at the same time free himself from their constraints, and be human? A searing and comedic account of the ties that bind individuals to their society, and the need to challenge them.

WAYNE PEARN will direct Bloomsday’s theatrical adaptation of the novel at fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, from 15 June until 18 June at 8pm, and finish with a matinee at 3pm on 19 June.

Other Festival Events: In addition to the play at fortyfivedownstairs, there will be a seminar at 3.30pm on Bloomsday 16 June only, at Papa Goose restaurant, 91-3 Flinders Lane, and the annual dinner following the seminar is at 6.00pm in the same venue. The speakers at the seminar are Prof. Michael Meehan, a celebrated novelist, and Ms Janet Strachan, who will talk about the masks assumed by modernists, specifically Joyce and Eliot.

More information about all three events and booking details at www.bloomsdayinmelbourne.org.au. Please note, you need to book for the play through the theatre, and for the seminar and dinner via Bloomsday.

Bloomsday in Melbourne has been celebrating Joyce's fiction with new original plays since 1994.