Bloomsday in Melbourne: Samuel Beckett and the Rainbow Girl

The centrepiece of the Bloomsday in Melbourne Festival in 2024 is Samuel Beckett and the Rainbow Girl: Genius, Love, Madness, Violence in 1920s Paris by Steve Carey and directed by Carl Whiteside.

It’s late 1920s Paris, and Lucia, muse and only daughter of notorious banned novelist James Joyce, is poised to succeed as a daringly original dancer. Into this dysfunctional artistic household arrives alluring young Dubliner Samuel Beckett – enigmatic, hypereducated, a writer seeking his own literary voice. He finds himself drawn into the older writer’s web… and at the same time becomes the reluctant subject of Lucia’s increasingly obsessive amorous gaze. A series of romantic misunderstandings, at first comic but increasingly tragic, strip Lucia of her nascent career and her family and love interest both lost to her, she spirals into madness.

Tickets are $44. Performances are from June 13-23 at 7:30pm in St. Martin’s Theatre. More information about the Bloomsday in Melbourne Festival can be found on https://www.bloomsdayinmelbourne.org.au/.