Origin Theatre Company stages the 2nd annual Bloomsday Breakfast at Bloom's Tavern, 208 East 58th Street, in midtown today, June 16, beginning at 7:30am.
Featuring a rollicking roster of writers, actors and luminaries from in and out of the New York's Irish community, the site-specific breakfast-performance rekindles a New York literary-theatrical tradition. "Origin's 2nd Bloom @ Bloom's Tavern" -- a free event -- is hosted by Midtown's two-year-old Bloom's Tavern, Gotham's newest answer to the modern Irish pub, and The
James Joyce Reading Group.
With music by the Irish-folk-rock troubadour Alan Gogarty, actors in costume, musicians, politicians and visitors on their way to work and other endeavors all conspire to recreate a summer morning in Dublin on June 16, just 111 years ago.
The spontaneous group performance, fueled by a traditional Irish breakfast with blood sausage and kidney pie, and other delicacies, is meant to conclude at 10am. A special prize for best costume will be handed out in the course of the morning.
The cast, assembled by Origin Theatre Company, George C. Heslin artistic director, includes: Terry Donnolly,
Patrick Fitzgerald,
Geraldine Hughes, Honor Molloy,
Malachy McCourt,
Charlotte Moore, Paula Nance, James O'Malley, and
Fiona Walsh, among others. Origin produces the New York premieres of plays by contemporary European playwrights, as well as the highly acclaimed Origin's 1st Irish Festival -- the world's only theatre festival dedicated to Irish playwrights -- every September.
RSVP's to this free event from 7:30am to 10am are being accepted by e-mailing
info@origintheatre.org Irish breakfast will be served throughout the day.
According to Bloom's owner
John Mahon, who, with
Eugene Wilson and Noel Donovan, head up a restaurant group that includes Theatre District mainstay Langan's, Bloom's Tavern takes its name as much from neighbors Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomingdale's as it does from the Joyce protagonist Leopold Bloom.
"This remarkable tradition all derives from Ireland and Dublin, but somehow the novel, and the day June 16 in which the novel takes place have enormous worldwide resonance," says Heslin, "While recognizing its Irish roots, we see this as an international event."
James Joyce first serialized "Ulysses" beginning in 1918. Considered a masterpiece of modernism, it was banned in the U.S. before the book was published in its entirety in France in 1922. The tradition of June 16 observances goes back to 1924.
For more information visit
www.origintheatre.org or
www.bloomsnyc.com.
