Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...If you’re resistant to the narrative underpinnings for Dietz’s story, it’s possible that you may, as Robert says, feel that you’re “made of something cold” for not buying into the romance. But Gangel and DeCesare go a long way toward overcoming the inherent twee-ness of the concept. Even if you don’t believe there’s only one great love in each person’s life, these two offer such charming performances that we root for them to figure it out."
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...It should be a train wreck, but somehow it's not, so long as you ignore everything except Dietz's nuanced musings about age, youth, regret, nostalgia, yearning, and self-recrimination. Sullivan's exemplary cast imbues the potentially preposterous story with such warmth and candor you may find yourself taking stock of your own greatest missed opportunities and heading home with a massive lump in your throat."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...Deliriously directed by J.R. Sullivan in a sometimes-captivating Chicago premiere by Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, these two hours evoke the non-linear, free-associative, rampaging wordplay of that often unreadable opus. It also has a lot to say about young love and late remorse."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended
"...This production holds such universal truths in age, romance and growing pains. Beautifully written and beautifully performed! "
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...I must stop here to tell you, even if you have no idea about the novel "Ulysses" or its characters, you will fall in love with this work. Directed by J.R. Sullivan ( an Irish director, for sure), this is about 90 minutes of actual on-stage time, BUT unlike a great number of shorter plays, this one does take a break, allowing for the audience to get their bearings on where and when they are watching."
WTTW - Highly Recommended
"...The play takes its title from the celebration held each year in Dublin and beyond on June 16 – the same day chronicled by James Joyce in “Ulysses,” his groundbreaking early 20th century modernist novel, whose principal character, Leopold Bloom, wanders through the Irish city, all the while thinking of his wife, Nora Barnacle, her liaison with her lover, and much else. But while inspired by the Joyce masterwork, “Bloomsday” is no stage adaptation of the novel. Rather, it is a gorgeous, exquisitely imagined contemporary riff on Joyce’s essential themes – the intersection of time and memory, and matters of love and loss – that is fascinating and heartbreaking in its own very particular way."
Chicago Theatre Review - Recommended
"...This is Steven Dietz’s fascinating version of a memory play. It taps into the nostalgia of our regrets and lost opportunities. His theme that adults, no matter their age, must somehow make peace with the roads they’ve taken and those they’ve left behind, is relevant to everyone. This journey through time and space is also reminiscent of a science fiction novella, by author David Gerrold, entitled The Man Who Folded Himself. In this book, a central character who’s able to travel back and forth in time interacts with himself at various ages and tries to teach himself valuable lessons. Perhaps younger theatergoers won’t have the same reaction to Steven Dietz’s romantic time travel fantasy as the more mature audiences; but those who’ve ever lived their lives wondering how things might’ve turned out differently will find that this story especially hits home."
Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended
"...It's early June in Dublin-almost Bloomsday. The time is today and 35 years ago. But whatever year it is, Bloomsday, celebrated on June 16, is a reason to lift a pint and appreciate the life and writing of James Joyce. Steven Dietz' memory play, directed by J.R. Sullivan, and now being staged by Remy Bumppo Theatre, is a captivating story of the past and/or the future. In Bloomsday, we meet two couples: Caithleen (Bryce Gangel) and Robbie (Jack DeCesare) who meet and almost love when they're 20. And their older counterparts, Robert (Shawn Douglass) and Cait (Annabel Armour), who return today, dressed for Bloomsday, and view the events of their past over pints of regret."
Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended
"...Bloomsday is a kind of a love story. It celebrates a could-have-been love between two people and a tender connection to a complex piece of poetic Irish prose, as well as an embrace of Ireland and an Irish way of thinking. It’s a beautiful play that Remy Bumppo produces with sensitivity, empathy and a little touch of magic. And it’s one of the finest plays so far this year."
NewCity Chicago - Recommended
"...It was William Faulkner who famously said, “The past is never really dead. It isn’t even past.” That philosophy drives “Bloomsday,” a bittersweet little Möbius strip of a play by the talented and prolific Steven Dietz (whose “Mad Beat Hip & Gone” is playing concurrently at Promethean Theatre Ensemble). First produced in 2015, “Bloomsday” has been lovingly revived by director J. R. Sullivan, who gives us an evening of theater that’s as rich and smooth as a Guinness stout."