No question lingers longer and more stubbornly in the mind than, “What if?” It’s a question that rings throughout Steven Dietz’s Bloomsday, a tragicomic play being staged at the Dukesbay Theater, directed by Randy Clark. On one momentous afternoon in Dublin, Robert, the American tourist, is drawn into a James Joyce tour led by Dubliner Caithleen, and there’s an immediate spark between the two of them, in a way that usually happens only with the young and stupidly romantic.
It’s a setup that’s been mined elsewhere, memorably in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, among many others. But in the case of Bloomsday, we learn very early on that these two young lovers did not end up together — not this time. We meet Robert as a man in his 50s (played by John Gonzales), returning to the place where he had that chance encounter all those years ago. And there is Caithleen, 20-years-old (played by Katy Jones), just as he remembered her. And soon, Robert’s own 20-year-old self (Trevor Owens) will come along, and later, Caithleen in her 50s (Nicole Lockett).
Past and present blend together in Bloomsday, and another question arises: if you could talk to your younger self, would you try to change the past? Should you? Is it possible to turn back the hands of time and make things right with the one that got away?
Bloomsday is a melancholy play, but not without its world-weary laughs. As the older Robert and Caithleen, Gonzales and Lockett are suitably impatient with their younger selves, lamenting their tastes in clothes, literature and partners. When the younger Robert makes the kind of grand gesture that’s more romantic in theory than in practice, the older Robert is mortified. Meanwhile, the older Caithleen has a palpable glee in telling her younger self all the living that’s in store for her.
Jones and Owens, the younger Caithleen and Robert, make for a winning pair, bursting with sincerity and naive idealism, and the believable feeling that they would be the types of people who would risk everything after one special day. As Caithleen leads Robert on a tour of Dublin, through the lens of Joyce’s Ulysses, it’s hard not to swoon a little bit, right along with them.
Much talk is had of Ulysses over the course of Bloomsday (which takes its name from an annual celebration of Joyce and his totemic novel), with the younger Robert being utterly oblivious to it, younger Caithleen enchanted by it, and older Robert not only a professor of it, but also its biggest hater. (Older Caithleen’s opinions on Ulysses are best left to be discovered.) It’s fitting that an exploration of youth and its follies should center around debating the merits of a big important Book, which I’m sure many of us did way too much in our day.
For as high-concept as Bloomsday is, it’s remarkably grounded and perceptive when it comes to young love, and as it pulls you in, you may find yourself thinking back to that certain someone from long ago — and whether it might be worth looking them up, just to see.
Photos by Jason Ganwich.
WHAT:
Bloomsday
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through April 6
WHERE:
Dukesbay Theater, 508 S. 6th Ave #10, Tacoma
COST:
$5-$15.01
LEARN MORE:
https://dukesbay.org/
(253) 350-7680