Drama On One
12 June 2022
8pm RTÉ Radio 1
Bloomsday by Nick Midgley
It is June 16th 1954, and from his hospital bed, Joyce is trying to find paper to complete his final book. “Almost at an end. The long-awaited work. By me, Joyce. Stanislaus Joyce, brother of…”As Stannie writes, he thinks back to 1905, and his arrival in Trieste. There he is welcomed by his elder brother, James, who has escaped from Dublin with Nora Barnacle to begin a new life and to forge a new art. But life with Jim and Nora is not what Stannie had imagined, and soon he is sacrificing his own ambitions to help pay the bills and rescue Jim from drink. Is Stannie just a minor character in his brother’s life, easily cast off once no longer needed? Or has he played a role in creating some of the greatest literature of the last century? As Bloomsday, and his own life, both come to an end, Stannie confronts his brother for a final time. Part of RTÉ Drama On One’s short season celebrating the centenary of Ulysses.
Starring Bosco Hogan, Colin Campbell, Éanna Grogan, Kate Gilmore, Genevieve Hulme Beaman and Ashleigh Dorrell.
Directed by Daniel Reardon
Sound: Mark Dwyer
Series Producer, Drama On One: Kevin Reynolds