The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Steven Dietz’s road-not-taken tale, ‘Bloomsday,’ given delightful turn
In none too fragile’s production, wordy play rewards the audience
“Too many notes.” That’s what Emperor Joseph II said about Mozart’s comic opera “The Marriage of Figaro.” He was not alone in this criticism, for many of Mozart’s reviews called attention to his tendency to write “overloaded and overstuffed.”
The same can be said for contemporary playwright Steven Dietz’s plays, an example of which, “Last of the Boys,” was on display at none too fragile theater in Akron last season.
“Too many words” is a particularly applicable description of the theater’s current offering, Dietz’s “Bloomsday,” which borrows its theme, temperament and a fair share of text from the poster child of impenetrable, rambling prose — James Joyce’s 265,000 word tome “Ulysses.”
The play is getting a most delightful, thoroughly engaging production under Katia Schwarz’s velvet-gloved direction and bare-boned scenic design.
Its story, in short, is about a middle-aged man (Tom Woodward) who goes back to Dublin 35 years after he met a young girl leading a “Ulysses” literary pub crawl whom he never forgot, regrets never pursuing and wishes to find. He does, but she is her younger self (Brooke Turner). And his younger self also shows up (Nicholas Chokan). So does her older self (Derdriu Ring). Rather than revisiting a
The script is saturated with crisp verbal exchanges, charming comicality and no shortage of heartbreak.
city, he inexplicably revisits a moment in time and gets to relive — as do we all — the longing beautifully captured in Joyce’s words: “Wait. I wanted to. I haven’t yet.”
The title of the play references an Irish “holiday” that commemorates that day in 1904 — June 16 — when Joyce had his first romantic encounter with his muse and future wife, Nora Barnacle. That is also the day the entirety of “Ulysses” takes place and the celebration is named after the novel’s protagonist, Leopold Bloom.
The characters in Dietz’s play are similarly rich, complex and deliciously drawn. The script is saturated with crisp verbal exchanges, charming comicality and no shortage of heartbreak. And yes, there are plenty of words. But they are good ones, and the performances by this exceptional cast have audiences hanging on each of them.
Woodward wears Robert’s unending ache on his sleeve while managing to relay all the delightfully ironic humor to be found in his character’s distaste for Joyce’s novel. His everyman sensibilities and tendency to listen to, and register, every word being spoken on stage makes him terribly and immediately endearing.
Endearing also describes Turner’s portrayal of young Caithleen. It is hard to imagine that the playwright envisioned the character more irresistible and impulsive than what we witness on this stage. Turner’s Caithleen is a perfect manifestation of Robert’s romanticized memory.
Best of all, she captures the smarts, sass and undercurrent of despair that Ring so marvelously brings to bear as the character’s older self, Cait. But Ring allows that despair to surface upon occasion and then just as quickly dissipate, which is mesmerizing and adds so much to the storytelling.
Chokan’s emotional and physical depiction of Robbie is less effective at matching Robert’s recollections of his younger self. But everything he does is honest, contributes to the gentle poetry that drives this play and nicely sows the seeds of the young love and resultant regret that will metastasize and haunt his character for the next three decades.
Director Schwarz finds all the right pauses in the play, which allow the audience to breathe, reflect and marvel and the work before us. She is so effective in her efforts that the play’s rather fantastical element of time travel fades inconspicuously into the background to allow Dietz’s words and these fine performances to take center stage.
This production is a fine example of what none too fragile does best — strip a show to its core to reveal all its charms.