AROUND TOWN:
2007 Bloomsday Reading at The Cliff Dwellers Club

Is there anything more sublime than Mary Nell Murphy's reading of Molly's Yes? More hilarious -- and true -- than Robert Reidy's narration of Paddy Dignam's funeral? More bawdy than Claudia Traudt's take on Gerty MacDowell at the fireworks? More mesmerizing than Kevin Grandfield's performance of Stephen Dedalus' walk along Sandymount Strand? More authentic than Rory Childers? I was again humbled to stand among their company -- and the company of the wonderfully talented Larry McCauley, Gene Smith and Pat McCaughy -- to celebrate James Joyce's Ulysses. I was also left thinking there is nothing more hallucinatory than Steve Diedrich's reveling in Nighttown, save perhaps for the times when other readers were at the podium and Steve, our ringleader and emcee for this good, long evening, sat with eyes closed, faced flushed and lips moving in silent echo, reciting nearly each passage to himself from memory.