Florida Repertory Theatre’s production of playwright Steven Dietz’s time-travel love story “Bloomsday,” approaches its final weekend of performances. The play tells the story of an American man who returns to Dublin, Ireland to find the woman who captured his heart 35 years prior.
The four actors in the play depict Robbie and Caithleen at the age of 20, and those same characters at the age of 55 (who then go by Robert and Cait). They shift through time in just about every which way as Caithleen’s experience of her life doesn’t exactly follow a linear chronology.
The play is set against the backdrop of Dublin’s annual June 16th Bloomsday celebration, which is the same day chronicled in James Joyce’s famed novel “Ulysses.” With heartache and humor, the play explores themes of madness, memory, love and regret.
The playwright Steven Dietz has twice-now been named among the most produced playwrights in the U.S. His more than 40 plays and adaptations have been performed off-Broadway and in regional theaters throughout the U.S. and in 25 countries.
“Bloomsday” earned him the 2016 Steinberg New Play Award Citation. Other works by Dietz have earned him the PEN U.S.A. Award for Drama, the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Mystery, among other honors.
Earlier this month, we sat down with Dietz for a conversation recorded on the set of Florida Repertory Theatre’s production of “Bloomsday.” Ahead of the final weekend of performances in this production, we revisit our conversation with the playwright.
