1pm and 8pm: A Play, Wilde About Joyce, Queen's Hall, State Library. $30

3.15pm: Seminar on Joyce and Wilde, The Celtic Club. $20

5.30pm for 6pm: Dinner with Wilde (includes readings of Wilde's plays), The Celtic Club. $40, drinks at bar prices

Oscar Wilde, it will be argued, is a ghost who haunts Ulysses, being mentioned often, both explicitly and implicitly, and arguably present in the character of Buck Mulligan. Bloomsday in Melbourne Inc. places Joyce and Wilde in an Antechamber of Heaven  to sort out their differences. It's a contest between two modern ways of writing. A seminar will explore aspects of betrayal in the writings of Joyce and Wilde and in Joyce's representation of sexuality and homosexuality in Ulysses.

Wilde was a significantly different artist from Joyce, and a convenient point of departure for Joyce's writing.  Joyce was only 13 when Wilde was tried, and he admired him greatly, while at the same time being quite ambivalent about by the 'crime' for which he was convicted, and traumatised by the conduct and outcomes of the trial.

Oscar Wilde:

"I never write plays for anyone. I write to amuse myself. After, if people want to act in them, I sometimes allow them to do so."

"Artists, like Gods, must never leave their pedestals."

"The telling of beautiful untrue things is the proper aim of art."

Bloomsday in Melbourne is a literary festival held each year on 16 June to celebrate James Joyce's Ulysses.

The Bloomsday Players take the epic novel, and others of Joyce's works, to the streets of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). Welcome to our festival!

Photos of In Rehearsal– June 09

Lady Wilde's Album
We had permission to scan Lady Wilde's treasured album of various personages, that was presented at the recent Salon.

Be part of the Bloomsday In Melbourne dialogue and go to the Discussion Forum. Join discussions about the current productions. Talk about James Joyce.

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The City of Melbourne and the Irish Government are committed to the Arts, through their support of Bloomsday In Melbourne's 2009 events as part of the 2009 Arts Grants Programs. Their support, and the support of the State Library of Victoria, Deakin University and The Celtic Club is gratefully acknowledged.