2018 Bloomsday Press Release
21st Annual Staged Reading / Bloomsday Celebration of James Joyce’s Ulysses
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle join Bloomsday celebrations across the globe honoring Ulysses’ author James Joyce. Our 21st annual staged reading of selections from the book will be held on Saturday, June 16th, 2018 at 2:30pm at the Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, Seattle, WA 98104, Level 4 – Room 2 – Howard S. Wright Family & Janet W. Ketcham Meeting Room.
Bloomsday (Bloom’s day, named for Ulysses’ main character, Leopold Bloom) is a worldwide commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce and refers to the 24-hour period of 16th June 1904 in which Ulysses is set. The book follows the wanderings of Bloom, a Jewish everyman, and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce’s alter ego, as they wander the streets of Dublin.
Join us for a taste of Ulysses, in small bites. This year’s reading features Chapter 8, “Lestrygonians”, and Chapter 9, “Scylla and Charybdis”. In the book, both chapters take place in the early afternoon.
We pick up where we left off last year in the middle of Chapter 8, as Leopold Bloom is searching for lunch. He enters Davy Byrne’s peaceful pub, gaining respite from the hubbub of Dublin. Joyce, as ever, is preoccupied with “the significance of trivial things”, through which we learn more about Bloom’s past and how others see him.
In Chapter 9, Stephen Dedalus is holding forth in the National Library of Ireland, giving the performance of his life to an audience of Irish writers and scholars who were part of the Irish Literary Revival of the early 20th century. Stephen is an outsider, desperately trying to assert himself in front of these gatekeepers of Irish culture. He shares his elaborate theories on the life of Shakespeare, why the bard left his second-best bed to his widow, Anne Hathaway, and the fatherlessness of Hamlet.
The Wild Geese Players of Seattle have presented staged readings of Irish literature by writers such as James Joyce and W.B. Yeats since 1998. We are a diverse group of people with an interest in Irish literature, and most of us are either Irish-born or have Irish connections. We believe that poetry and certain novels are best read aloud, that some words are better heard than read.
For more information, visit the Wild Geese Players’ website www.WildGeeseSeattle.org, like our Facebook group, or follow @WildGeeseSea on Twitter.
Follow-up contacts:
George Reilly, Director, WildGeeseSeattle@gmail.com
Claudia Finn, CFinnSeattle@gmail.com