Theater Review

Joyce event marks 20 years with 12-hour marathon

By Joseph Hurley

BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY XX. Staged and hosted by Malachy McCourt and Isaiah Sheffer. Held Saturday, June 16, from noon to midnight at Symphony Space, 95th Street and Broadway.

At approximately 12:04 a.m., on Sunday, June 17, when the Irish Repertory Theatre’s redoubtable Terry Donnelly, reading Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy, uttered her final "Yes," activities at Symphony Space came to a halt.

On the face of it, that’s not so unusual, since for the last 20 years the venerable old cultural center on the Upper West Side has presented something it calls "Bloomsday on Broadway," and, not surprisingly, the evening has ended when Marian Bloom, aka Molly, the restless, faithless wife of Leopold Bloom, surrenders her heavily sexual stream of consciousness musings and sinks into sleep.

What was different about "Bloomsday 2001," which is, of course, a commemoration of the Dublin day, June 16, 1904, on which James Joyce’s novel "Ulysses" takes place, was that this time Molly’s terminal utterance signaled not just a few hours of silence until Symphony Space would return to bustling life again, but a shutdown that is expected to last until sometime in the middle of March 2002.

The closure is necessary to facilitate completion of Symphony Space’s massive and ongoing renovation project. The project includes construction of a high rise over the theater itself, and a reconstruction and refurbishing of the beloved Thalia Theatre, a revival-oriented movie house whose entrance was on the 95th Street side of the Symphony Space structure.

Actress Donnelly’s performance, which had begun at or about 9:15, and which had been part of a well-routined, six-hour broadcast over both the AM and FM units of radio station WNYC, ended on a jubilant note, with the performer’s voice rising sufficiently

that an emphatic exclamation point seemed to follow that final "Yes."

Symphony Space’s "Bloomsday" celebrations generally have tended to occupy some six or seven hours, sometimes winding up as late as 1 in the morning of June 17.

This time, because it was the 20th, and because it ushered in that nine-month closing of the structure, the Symphony Space artistic director, Isaiah Sheffer, opted for something more ambitious, namely a "Bloomsday" starting at noon and ending at midnight, and therefore lasting fully half as long as that famous Irish day some 97 years ago.

"Bloomsday on Broadway XX" was modestly but accurately subtitled "Readings from James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ staged and hosted by Malachy McCourt & Isaiah Sheffer," and that’s pretty much what the long enjoyable, gently flowing day was.

The observation began at noon and continued until 5:30 with what McCourt and Sheffer called "A Guided Tour of the Whole Remarkable Book," with generous helpings of Joycean sections. These ranged from Telemachus, Nestor, Proteus, Calypso, Lotus Eaters and Hades to the later sequences ‘olus, Lestrygonians, Scylla and Charybdis, Wandering Rocks, Sirens, Cyclops, Nausicas, Oxen of the Sun, Circe, Emm’us, Ithaca, and, finally, Penelope.

After a brief intermission and a musical interlude in which soprano Carol Meyer and a string quartet performed composer Victoria Bond’s settings of portions of Molly Bloom’s musings, the day-long celebration made its radio link-up and entered its final six hours.

The earlier portions of the day were graced by such performers as Marian Seldes, Paul Hecht, Larry Keith, Joan Leighton, Elizabeth Whyte, George Vogel, Bernadette Quigley, Neil Hickey, Aidan Connolly, Jack Davidson and Delphia Harrington, followed by such "Bloomsday" regulars as David Margulies, Lois Smith, Fritz Weaver, Charlotte Moore, Imelda O’Reilly, Rochelle Oliver, Lillo Way, Sean Cannon, KT Sullivan, Barbara Feldon and Pauline Flanagan, many of whom had to work their participation at Symphony Space into schedules involving rehearsals and performances on and off Broadway.

Each hour of the radio link-up was introduced by a brief and enlightening segment, recorded by WNYC, intended to introduce the material immediately following.

From 6:15-7:15, hosts McCourt and Sheffer presented something they called "Mr. Bloom and the Cyclops," and at 7:15, the former presided over a light-hearted sequence McCourt, who was primarily responsible for it, had named "What They Ate and What They Drank."

A stage crammed with actors trotted through just about every mention of food and drink to be found in the entire "Ulysses," starting with those famous, odiferous kidneys prepared by Leopold Bloom for his and Molly’s breakfast.

A particularly rich section followed, filling the time from 8:15 until 9:15, and given the title "And So to Bed in Ithaca," being highlighted by a goodly number of the question-and-answer sequences to be found in the book.

The hour starting at 8:15 was particularly rewarding because of the participation of such performers as TV’s Robert MacNeil, David Margulies, Harris Yulin, Kathleen Chalfant, Jonathan Hadary and Frances Sternhagen, all of whom, to put it mildly, knew where the laughs were, and sniffed them out like seasoned truffle hounds.

Then, of course, came Molly Bloom’s Soliloquy, performed with insight, wit and endless grace by Donnelly, who had only two days notice that she would be pinch-hitting for Fionnula Flanagan, who proved unable to make the trip from her home in California. The sequence was wryly termed "The Full Monty."

Wondrous as much of what went on on the Symphony Space stage was, a lot of what was special, moving and quirky about the endeavor took place in the partially darkened auditorium, where students, scholars and various other Joyceans followed the text much in the manner of music students studying operatic and symphonic scores as the material is being performed a few hundred feet or so from the reader.

At late as a few minutes before midnight, students could be seen perched on stools or crouching in stairways, taking full advantage of whatever light might be available.

Much of "Bloomsday XX" appeared to be a neighborhood affair, with audience members coming and going at will, trudging up and down the aisles bearing shopping bags and tote bags emblazoned with names of familiar local establishments ranging from Barnes and Noble to Zabar’s.

The backpacks and water bottles were beyond counting and a goodly number of audience members removed their shoes and settled in for the long haul. Indeed, for the most of the 12 hours, the house was fairly full, at times approaching capacity.