In partnership with the Irish American Writers and Artists, the James Joyce Society invites you to attend Bloomsday at Dive 106 on Amsterdam Avenue and 106th St., outdoors, on the street. Our friends from Elevator Repair Service will be performing two scenes from the stage adaptation of Ulysses that they debuted at last year’s “Bloomsday on Broadway.” We will have readings (including YOU reading your favorite passage, max. 3-minutes), trivia, t-shirt giveaways, food/drink specials, and more, ending with music by Liz Hanly.
Ulysses
Created by Elevator Repair Service
Directed by John Collins
Co-Direction and Dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd
Text by James Joyce
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 now takes on this Mount Everest of 20th Century literature. Seven performers sit down for a sober reading but soon find themselves careening on a fast-forward tour through Joyce’s funhouse of styles, guzzling pints, getting in brawls, philosophizing, and committing debaucheries. With madcap antics and a densely layered sound design, ERS presents an eclectic sampling from Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece. Ulysses will premiere at Fisher Center at Bard in September 2023.
From left to right: Dee Beasnael, Maggie Hoffman, © 2022 Kevin Yatarola for Symphony Space
Elevator Repair Service (ERS) is a New York City–based company that creates original works for live theater with an ongoing ensemble. The company’s shows are created from a wide range of texts that include found transcripts of trials and debates, literature, classical dramas, and new plays. Founded in 1991, ERS has created an extensive body of work that includes upwards of 20 original pieces. These have earned the company a loyal following and made it one of New York’s most highly acclaimed experimental theater companies. The company is best known for Gatz, its award-winning verbatim staging of the entire text of The Great Gatsby. ERS has received numerous awards and distinctions, including Lortel awards, a Bessie award, and an OBIE award for Sustained Excellence, as well as a Guggengheim Fellowship and Doris Duke Performing Artist Award for Artistic Director John Collins.
From left to right: Kate Benson (behind), Scott Shepherd, Vin Knight, Stephanie Weeks, © 2022 Kevin Yatarola for Symphony Space
Ulysses was commissioned by and developed at Symphony Space.
Ulysses will be commissioned by and receive its world premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard in September 2023.
This performance is made possible, in part, with public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Elevator Repair Service is also supported with funds from The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation, Edward T. Cone Foundation, The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Howard Gilman Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, Jockey Hollow Foundation, Lucille Lortel Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The O’Grady Foundation, Scherman Foundation, Select Equity Group Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation.
Elevator Repair Service is a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York.