Bloomsday Belles

Join us at the James Joyce Centre for Bloomsday Belles on Sunday, June 15th at 5pm.

Bloomsday Belles is a multidisciplinary performance of original music and song, composed and performed by critically acclaimed musician Emer Kenny, inspired by the female characters in Ulysses. The performance will include selected excerpts from Ulysses. In addition to original composition and Ulysses text read by spoken word poet Mikey Cullen, the performance will include live Spanish music from the period representing Molly’s youth and heritage, performed by multi award winning concert harp soloist, Rosie Murphy. The music and text will be interpreted and danced by the brilliant Ukrainian contemporary dancer, Polina Skarha.

Molly, a professional singer is descibed by Leopold as ‘Madam Bloom, the vocal muse and Dublin’s prime favourite.’

“What inspires me about Molly Bloom is her confidence in her own voice and musicianship, her confidence in her sexuality and in her own sexual attractiveness. Molly is resilient, she endures the grief of the loss of her son Rudy. She is irreverent, and funny. And despite their infidelities, both she and Leopold are bound together by their shared history and love. Bloom who works, has a very wide social circle, whereas Molly’s contribution to Ulysses is mainly a monologue in her home. I think Molly is lonely.

Clock chimes and bells feature throughout the work. The Blooms lives are punctuated by the church bells chimes ‘Heigh Ho’ also symbolising the relentless passing of time and the briefness of youth and beauty. The Blooms are Dubliners, though Molly’s mother is Spanish and Bloom’s father is Hungarian. Dublin never was and never will be what the ‘citizen’ hopes for.

“I want to celebrate the cultural diversity of Dublin both past and present.”

The event is free but booking is essential. Doors open at 4.30pm.