Bloomsday: An Odyssey of Food, Fun and James Joyce

For its eighth year, the Ocean City Repertory Theater will present Bloomsday, its annual staged reading of James Joyce's Ulysses.

The event will be held noon to midnight Saturday, June 16, at several points around Ocean City. All readings are free and open to the public.

“This is our annual celebration of life, love, language, literature and the coming of summertime,” said Flossi Micciolo, producing artistic director and founder of the Repertory Theater.

Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on June 16 in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Joyce, an Irish writer, and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The event is named for Leopold Bloom, the novel's protagonist.

The Bloomsday celebration combines James Joyce readings with refreshments from various Ocean City businesses. The schedule is as follows:

• Noon to 1 p.m.: At the  “We begin with Telemachus as stately plump Buck Mulligan ascends the stairs of the Martello Tower in Sandycove, looks out over the snotgreen sea, and the events of Bloomsday are set in motion,” Micciolo said. "There will also be a short reading from the Nestor episode." Coffee and desserts will be served, courtesy of .
• 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: At the Boardwalk Pavilion, 11th St. and the Boardwalk — Proteus: Stephen Dedalus walks the beach and thinks. Calypso: Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. In honor of Homer, Greek food will be served, which is being donated for the event by .
• 3 to 4 p.m.: At the — From Lotus Eaters: As Leopold Bloom sets off from Eccles Street to retrieve Martha's flower-filled love letter, visit the church, tip a race, and visit the baths to lie naked, in a womb of warmth, oiled by scented melting candles. For this stop, participants will enjoy pea soup, gorgonzola cheese, Italian olives and brown bread, which have been donated by .
• 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.:   — “Our guests will enjoy a gorgeous afternoon tea of finger sandwiches and scones, as songs of Joyce's bygone era fill the air,” Micciolo said. “Love’s Old Sweet Song and The Lass of Aughrim are just the beginning of a musical odyssey destined to delight one and all.” Tea donated by . “Pause with Bloom in Lestrygonians as he eats strips of sandwich, fresh, clean bread and glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed,” Micciolo said.
• 6 to 7:00 p.m.: At  — "Steer a safe path through Scylla and Charybdis with John Eglinton the Quaker librarian and talk of Hamlet Shakespeare and Hamlet’s ghost at the National Library where Dedalus and Bloom pass each other, unnoticed,” Micciolo said. For this stop, will provide Italian appetizers.
• 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.: At  — From "Reading from Hades, we’ll accompany poor Paddy Dignam on his final journey to Glasnevin Cemetery with gossip and memories and dreams of immortality,” Micciolo noted. Sandwiches and cold drinks have been donated by the for the event.
• 9 p.m. to midnight: At  — Readings will pay tribute to Episode 11 through Episode 18 of the novel. “Lured by the sweet song of different Sirens, Bloom and Boylan go their separate ways along the Liffey while from the saloon of the Ormond Hotel emerges a fugue of music and song and a call ... long in dying,” Micciolo explains. “Cyclops: The Citizen and his mangy mongrel Garryowen wait for what the sky would drop in the way of drink and politics, patriotism, religion and Bloom are the targets of his vitriolic verbosity...  Nausicaa takes us to Sandymount Strand and Gerty McDowell’s dreams of love with the dark stranger and the fireworks ignite both Bloom and Gerty and the summer sky ... Circe: Stephen Dedalus and his friend Lynch, both very drunk, have entered Nighttown, Dublin’s red-light district, in search of female companionship. Leopold Bloom, who has some paternal feelings for Stephen, has followed them. This is a long chapter full of hallucinations and nightmares, where Bloom confronts many of his unspoken desires and emerges strengthened ... Eumaeus: Through the gloom and dark of after-midnight Dublin, Bloom steers a tired but singing Stephen Dedalus to the cabman’s shelter at Butt Bridge and on towards Gardiner Street and a safe haven at No. 7 Eccles Street as their day's odyssey winds down, slowly down ... Penelope: And finally, from her jingling brass bed, Molly Bloom, her Leopold/Ulysses returned from his wanderings, draws us into Penelope, her stream-of-consciousness soliloquy with its final, great, life-affirming – Yes.”

An Irish dinner of ham, cabbage, potatoes and soda bread will be served. For more information, those interested can call 609-457-6686 or visit www.ocrep.org.

— News release from the Ocean City Repertory Theater