bloominauschwitz at the Manchester Jewish Museum

bloominauscwitz was commission by Menagerie Theatre and developed over a lengthy three year period. Following a good airing at Edinburgh Fringe this year and earlier previews, when it won Best New Play at Brighton Fringe, it comes to Manchester’s Jewish Museum this November for one special performance.

In bloominauschwitz, writer Richard Fredman imagines Leopold Bloom exploding out of the confines of James Joyce’s great novel Ulysses to re-discover his Jewish roots. Bloom bounds back and forth through time, straight through Europe’s fault lines of identity, belonging and collective memory.

An explosive piece of theatre right from the start

In Ulysses, Bloom lives as the hero of James Joyce’s much-revered novel – he exists entirely as a creation of the author – reenacting the events of 16th June 1904 over and over again. Abandoning Joyce, Bloom begins to probe and question things. In the search for his identity, he discovers that things are often more complex than they appear and that becoming too fixated on one perspective – one singular point of view – can have horrific consequences.

bloominauschwitz is an explosive piece of theatre right from the start, though cleverly it confounds audience expectations in the process. Mixing clownish antics with high drama, rich text and powerful imagery, it features Menagerie Theatre’s Founder and Artistic Director, Patrick Morris in a tour-de-force role as Bloom.

Taking the audience on a fascinating though terrifying journey, Patrick Morris delivers an unforgettably masterful performance. Combining exuberant comedy with searing drama, bloominauschwitz is both a lament for those lost to grief and conflict, and a celebration the human ability in imagining alternative futures.

With a running time of 90 minutes, bloominauschwitz is being performed as part of the two-week long Festival of Leaving at the Manchester Jewish Museum. This very special performance will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.