BLOOMSDAY IN MELBOURNE
TRAVESTIES
BY
TOM STOPPARD
A COMIC MASTERPIECE OF OUR TIMES
Directed by Jennifer Sarah Dean
Stoppard's comedy Travesties has been recently revived in London and New York and played to audiences who were once again enamoured of its witty inventiveness. Its main characters - James Joyce (close to finishing Ulysses), Tristan Tzara (inventor of Dadaism), Lenin (en route to Russia and a Revolution), and Henry Carr (a British consular official) - are historical. That they met in Zurich in 1917probably not, but the play takes it energy from a real event - Joyce was producer of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1918. Joyce's long-term advocacy of the disgraced Oscar Wilde gives Stoppard all the licence he needs to mash up Joyce and Wilde, and for good measure, Shakespeare, and provide a glimpse into political as well as literary revolutions.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
When: Weds 12-Sun 23 June 2019. Bloomsday's first two-week season
Where: fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane. Disabled access available by arrangement with the theatre the day before (03 9662 9966).
Bookings: Online via the theatre or phone 03 9662 9966.
MEET OUR DIRECTOR
Jennifer Sarah Dean is directing Travesties, her second excursion with Bloomsday in Melbourne. This dynamic young woman has been in Melbourne only three years, and has made a substantial impact on the theatre scene, setting up the Melbourne Shakespeare Company, and directing many highly popular and lively Shakespeare productions in the parks of Stonnington and St. Kilda. Trained at the Globe, and with a deep and long immersion in musical and physical theatre, she is adoring unpacking the many layers of Stoppard's brilliant text.
OUR TALENTED ACTORS
AND COSTUMIER
JOANNA HALLIDAY
Gwendolen Carr, diplomat's daughter and (fictional) amanuensis for Joyce
GABRIELLE SING
Cecily, Librarian and supporter of Lenin
RHIANNON IRVING
Costume Designer
JOHNATHAN PECK
James Joyce, novelist, author of Ulysses
DION MILLS
Henry Carr, minor British Consular Official in Zurich
SYD BRISBANE
Lenin, aka Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanof, Russian Revolutionary
MATT CONNELL
Poet, Performance Artist, Inventor of Dadaism
TREF GARE
Bennett, Carr's Butler, Subversive
MILIJANA CANCAR
Nadya, wife of Lenin