Stage Review - Bloomsday (Dukesbay Productions)
Stage Review - Bloomsday
Presented By: Dukesbay Productions - Tacoma, WA
Show Run: March 21 - April 06, 2025
Date Reviewed: Sunday, March 23, 2025 (Closing Weekend)
Run Time: 90 Minutes (no intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
“If you could give your younger self life-changing advice, what would you say?” That’s the tagline of Bloomsday, the 2017 Steven Dietz play that was originally developed in part right here in Washington. Well, here being relative. Workshopped as part of the Icicle Creek Theatre Festival in Leavenworth, WA (later renamed the Icicle Creek New Play Festival), in 2016 with Allen Fitzpatrick as Artistic Director, the play travelled to Seattle and the ACT Contemporary Theatre mainstage, after which it won a Steinberg award from the American Theatre Critics Association, a top prize for plays produced outside of New York City. Since then, it’s been widely produced around the country, and with Dukesbay Productions, Bloomsday is making a return to the Puget Sound region, in a show directed by Randy Clark and running on stage in Tacoma through April 6.
Bloomsday refers to a celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed each year in Dublin on June 16, the day on which the author’s novel Ulysses takes place, the observance taking its name from the story’s protagonist Leopold Bloom. The significance of Bloomsday in the play is that it is the day in which our couple originally meets, young Robbie in Dublin getting pulled in to Caithleen’s James Joyce tour as her 14th (only having 13 in any tour she hosts would be unlucky), before the two end up spending a whirlwind of a day together before going their separate ways. It should be simple enough, but just like in Joyce’s Ulysses, where time doesn’t exactly work in a linear fashion, where this one particular day brings together all people and situations into one universal human moment, Dietz’s Bloomsday presents time as a chord, in which past and present characters can interact with each other, which gives each of them the ability to give their younger selves that life-changing advice if, in fact, they choose to do so. I’ve always been fascinated, personally, by the idea of time travel, and the hypotheticals that it presents, so the premise of Bloomsday I find intriguing. It’s a unique take in that it’s not just one person that has the opportunity to go back in time, but rather it seems like both characters comprehend the idea that it’s not just possible that they can visit other versions of themselves, but that it’s just a fact of life. Perhaps not so much the younger Robbie, it takes him a bit to catch on, which is what causes the play’s main conflict to begin with.
As the play opens, it’s Robert that the audience meets first, the older version of the one smitten with the young tour guide. Robert is the narrator of the play, he’s the one who explains where, and when, he is, how time works, and where everything went wrong. He’s returned to the scene of the crime, so to speak, meeting up with young Caithleen, engaging her in conversation, setting her up for what is about to happen, whom she is about to meet, providing some advice on how to treat his younger self. John Gonzales plays Robert here and he’s very good in his engagement with the audience, his manner in narrating the story, and in the way he interacts not just with the younger Caithleen, played sweetly by Katy Jones, but with his younger self, portrayed naively by Trevor Owens, and the older Cait, Nicole Lockett. The idea here is that Robbie and Caithleen, having spent that one day together, have each spent the last number of years wrestling with the regret and the “what if?”, and with the ability to go back and interact with the younger versions of themselves, perhaps they can change that. There are a number of crossroads presented in the play, and I like that about it, again it’s not just a singular moment, a singular choice. The older Robert and Cait have the choice to direct their younger selves, or leave well enough alone, considering the question about what the impact would be of changing a past that has already been written. Meanwhile, the younger versions of themselves have new information that they can use to make different choices, and whether or not they do considers the idea of fate and free will. Finally, the older versions in the present day have their own choices to make, so it’s clear that it’s a more layered and complicated piece than it might let on at first, and that’s really what makes it as engaging as it is.
This cast of four does very well here, especially John and Nicole, as their characters are informed not just by their present circumstances, but also by what has transpired in their respective pasts. Katy and Trevor are good as the young couple, with him nervous and unsure, and her confident and a bit cocky, but also troubled by what she perceives as a weakness, at the very least the way time folds around her is unsettling, and Robbie’s reaction to it solidifies what she’s believed all along. Of the “adults”, John’s Robert is the more outwardly emotional, his regret is clear, as are the feelings that he still has for Cait, while the older Cait is more level headed, but there may be a reason for that. Nicole is very solid in the role and is a good contrast in her steadiness to John’s more raw characterization. Her Irish lilt is also well done, as is Katy’s, though Nicole is more consistent with hers from start to finish, there were a few moments during Sunday’s matinee when Katy’s broke a bit. All and all, though, and especially in the service of the storytelling, this quartet does a fine job.
On the production side, Burton Yuen’s scenic design is, in a word, minimal. The floor is laid out with sheets to make it resemble brick pathways, and the set pieces are simple, a bench, a table, and a cafe table, with some framing toward the back of the stage area. There’s nothing more on the set, and quite frankly nothing more is needed. I like that simplistic aspect of the design, and I also like what Mark Thomason has done with his lighting of the set, especially in the contrast between the narration and the scene work. When John, as Robert, is narrating, he’ll step away from whatever conversation he’s having, the other actor(s) on the stage freeze, lights lower and he’s illuminated in spotlight. When he’s finished with his address to the audience, as if flipping a switch, the lights come back up and the actors begin moving again. Randy and his team have done a nice job, though there are a few moments in the middle of the show that feel a tad slow, but all and all they’ve taken a story that is, quite frankly, unique and engaging, and presented it very well.
Bloomsday, the locally developed play from Steven Dietz, is a story of love, regret, fate, free will, and time. It asks what we would do if we had the chance to go back and influence the actions of our past selves, would we change anything to relieve that regret, and if we did, what would the impact of those changes be? This is a uniquely crafted story that Dukesbay Productions and director Randy Clark have taken and developed a nice presentation of, with a cast of four that do a fine job in the service of the storytelling. There may not be one piece of the production that stands out above the others, but together, it makes for a pretty engaging piece of theatre.
Bloomsday, the latest show from Dukesbay Productions, runs on stage in Tacoma through April 6. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://dukesbay.org/shows/.
Photo credit: James Ganwich
