2004 HER SONG BE SUNG

SIAN TANNER REPORTS ON BLOOMSDAY EVENTS IN MELBOURNE

Responding to supporters’ requests, Bloomsday in Melbourne Inc. went back-to-basics for its 2004 Bloomsday celebrations at the Celtic Club, Melbourne. The premiere of a documentary film on Bloomsdays celebrated globally, Joyce to the World, set the stage for select readings by the Bloomsday Players and once-a-year Readers. A hearty, two-course dinner followed. The evening concluded with audience participation in a competitive ‘Gong’ session of one-minute excerpts from Ulysses.

This year being the centenary of the date on which James Joyce’s extraordinary novel, Ulysses was set and the date Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle (16th June 1904) was a perfect opportunity to return to the novel itself. It’s often said that the best way to approach Ulysses is to hear it read aloud: its complexities and challenges become clearer and what the eye stumbles over, the ear intuits. A readings format not only celebrated the novel but also introduced it to new readers, highlighting some of its key themes.

The free screening of the documentary, Joyce to the World, was an insightful look into Ulysses, exploring the different ways that Bloomsday is celebrated around the world. Made by FritzFilms, it includes interviews with esteemed actors, writers, directors and scholars such as Brian Dennehy, Frank McCourt, Fionnula Flanagan, Sean Walsh, Senator David Norris and Fritz Senn. The audience was intrigued by the Kobe, Japan performance of the Nausicaa episode of Ulysses; and with a fair amount of local pride, cheered when Bloomsday in Melbourne festivities were featured.

Once the audience was seated, the Master of Ceremonies, Ted Reilly, expertly introduced the evening’s proceedings with convivial repartee. The gong, principal prop for the concluding session, helped to maintain direction. The program for the evening was tight, so a judicious knock and a word or two of explanation kept proceedings on track.

Before the readings commenced, Mary Dalmau, Manager of Reader’s Feast Bookstore informed the audience of two special literary events occurring in August, as part of the 2004 Age Melbourne Writers’ Festival. In addition to the celebrated Irish writer, Colm Toibin appearing in conversation, Reader’s Feast, in conjunction with the State Library of Victoria will unveil a ‘James Joyce Seat’ at the State Library. The seat is inlaid with a brick from the demolished remains of a house at Millbourne Avenue, Drumcondra, formerly owned by Joyce. One of several such seats situated around the world, it symbolically represents the Irish literary heritage and James Joyce and will be an important cultural acquisition for Melbourne. The Melbourne audience also heard about the reception of Her Song be Sung in Dublin.

Readings from Ulysses were presented in two sessions: the first performed by Bloomsday Players, including Bill Johnston, Ezra Bix and Bonnie Truex. The second readings session was delivered by several of Bloomsday in Melbourne’s once-a-year readers: Jim Cusack, Alan Fagan, Helene McNamara, Eugene O’Rourke and Marlene Shanahan. Juliette Hughes, a new and expert Joycean reader, ably stood in at short notice for Mary Kenneally.  All readers are to be commended on the passion, professionalism and diverse approaches they brought to their excerpts. They demonstrated the novel’s inherent humour and compassion.

To name but a few, Ezra Bix’s Stephen Daedalus poignantly portrayed the angst-ridden, intellectual young poet, whose discovery of several of his own books amongst items on a book-cart inspires compassionate contemplation. Bill Johnston’s Leopold Bloom was a lively rendition of the effects a cheese sandwich and glass of red wine can have upon the digestion. Eugene O’Rourke’s solemn perambulations – in costume – as Father John Conmee, SJ, personified the character, adding decorum to the evening. Bonnie Truex’s Molly Bloom’s account of Leopold Bloom’s hungry wanderings past Dublin eateries whetted the audience’s appetites, particularly when delicious, warm cooking smells began to emerge from the kitchen. The dinner arrived, to great relief.

The Gong session placed the spotlight on the audience, encouraging them if they dared, and many did, to present their own takes on sections from Ulysses – the catch being they only had one minute to perform. David Sornig was spruiker for the Gong session. His exuberant banter was sprinkled with sly asides that would have left Red Symons gasping. Assisting David were judge panellists, Eugene O’Rourke, Marlene Shanahan and Nora Sheehan, whose decision accurately mirrored the audience applause. Congratulations go to the winner, Wendy Liang, Chinese-born and proud of it, and a novice to reading Joyce, who presented a remarkably imposing Bella/Bello Cohen character.

With senior Joycean, Professor Derek Attridge (York University, UK), Frances Devlin-Glass also took part in a live broadcast on 18 June on Joyce’s Ulysses from the RTE studios for Australia Talks Books on ABC Radio National, hosted by Sandy McCutcheon and Ramona Koval. One of the call-in patrons, identifying himself as Ross and currently living Queensland, reminisced warmly about three Bloomsdays in Melbourne he had attended, and was, as he spoke, welcoming people to his own in-house Bloomsday in Kawana Waters.  You can listen to it on the Radio National site at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/atbooks/  (18 June 04)

Two further programs, Books and Writing and The Law Report, produced by Lyn Gallacher for ABC Radio National, aired a section of the play adapted for radio as part of a discussion of Joyce and the copyright issue, and teased out implications of Australia’s signing of the Free Trade agreement with the US. These can be accessed (transcripts only at this stage, so unhappily you’ve missed the radio version of the play) at

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s1196227.htm

and

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/stories/s1198816.htm