ULYSSES
July - June 2024
Ulysses
Elevator Repair Service
SummerScape Commission/World Premiere
Created by Elevator Repair Service
Directed by John Collins
Co-Direction and Dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd
Text: Ulysses by James Joyce
"A heroic achievement…Elevator Repair Service’s adaptation merrily condenses the choicest essentials of James Joyce’s magnum opus.” —Village Voice
“The Elevator Repair Service production, playing at Bard through July 14, somehow manages to reduce the novel’s more than 260,000 words to 2 hours and 40 minutes with much of its humor, pathos, and bawdiness intact.” —New York Times
James Joyce’s Ulysses has fascinated, perplexed, scandalized, and/or defeated readers for over a century. Building on a rich history of staging modernist works—Gatz, The Sound and the Fury, The Select (The Sun Also Rises)—Elevator Repair Service (ERS) takes on this Mount Everest of twentieth-century literature in their Fisher Center debut.
Seven performers sit down for a sober reading but soon find themselves guzzling pints, getting in brawls, and committing debaucheries as they careen on a fast-forward tour through Joyce’s funhouse of styles. With madcap antics and a densely layered sound design, ERS presents an eclectic sampling from Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece.
Performers | Dee Beasnael, Kate Benson*, Maggie Hoffman, Vin Knight*, Scott Shepherd, Christopher-Rashee Stevenson, Stephanie Weeks* . Scenic Design | dots . Costume Design | Enver Chakartash . Lighting Design | Marika Kent . Sound Design | Ben Williams . Projection Design | Matthew Deinhart . Properties Design | Patricia Marjorie . Assistant Costume Design | Caleb Krieg . Assistant Lighting Design | Matt Lazarus . Assistant Projection Design | Alessandra Cronin . Assistant Properties Design | Ned Cían Gaynor . Assistant Director and Stage Manager | Maurina Lioce . Producer | Hanna Novak . Production Manager | Aaron Amodt . Show Operator | Gavin Price . Sound System Engineer | Jason Sebastian . Assistant Stage Manager | Kelsey Vivian* . Company Manager | Becky Hermenze . Teleprompter and Clock Software | Scott Shepherd
