Molly Bloom in Stereo!

           Each year, Radio Bloomsday ends its 7 hour nationwide broadcast of James Joyce’s Ulysses with the book’s final chapter – a two hour passion filled monologue, by the novel’s heroine, Molly Bloom.  For the first time ever, the complete Molly Bloom monologue from James Joyce’s Ulysses will be performed live by not one but two actresses, Caraid O’Brien and Bernadette Quigley (above), as a conversation that Molly has with her younger self.   

The Molly Bloom monologue is the most sexually explicit chapter in Ulysses and the reason why the book was so frequently censored.  Molly, a soprano, has spent the day in bed with her lover Blazes Boylan while her husband, Leopold Bloom wanders around Dublin.    Radio Bloomsday begins their broadcast of Molly Bloom’s night time thoughts at 11pm.  Throughout the two hour episode, a flood of memories is unleashed as the two Mollys spend the night together, thinking about their life and trying to unravel its mysteries.  Despite all the men that have crossed Molly’s path, she is her own most faithful companion.  

  Caraid O’Brien (left) has directed and performed Molly Bloom for Radio Bloomsday each year beginning in 2008.  Bernadette Quigley has performed the Molly monologue live at Symphony Space.  Her other credits include  The Suspect (upcoming), Dream House starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz & Naomi Watts, Holger Ernst’s The House Is Burning, Jim Sheridan’s Oscar-nominated In America, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Third Watch, and Kings, starring Ian McShane.  Quigley has worked extensively in the theatre including the National Tour of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, having understudied the Tony Award-winning play on Broadway.  Off-Broadway credits include Staci Swedeen’s The Goldman Project (Abingdon Theatre); Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan (Actors Studio); God of Vengeance (Jewish Repertory); and many leading roles at the Irish Arts Center in such plays as Billy Roche’s Poor Beast in the Rain & Kenneth Branagh’s Public Enemy.

            Other performers in this year’s broadcast include Alec Baldwin, Wallace Shawn, Anne Enright, Marc Maron, Bob Odenkirk, Jerry Stiller, John Lithgow, Heather Woodbury and Paul Dooley.   

             Radio Bloomsday is a seven hour nationwide live broadcast on the Pacifica Radio Network “where artists interpret James Joyce’s Ulysses.”  WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network have been presenting marathon performances of James Joyce’s Ulysses for over 30 years.  Since 2008, Radio Bloomsday has been directed by Caraid O’Brien in collaboration with Janet Coleman, WBAI’s Arts Director.  KPFK in Los Angeles will also carry the broadcast including the complete Molly Bloom monologue.