“This world-premiere production samples chunks from each of Ulysses‘ 18 episodes, letting them erupt in all their verbosity, vulgarity, vivacity and—it is Joyce, after all—opacity.”—New York Times
With madcap antics and a densely layered sound design, Elevator Repair Service presents the world premiere of their stage adaptation of “Ulysses”, James Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece, to the Fisher Center at Bard College‘s LUMA Theater September 21-October 1.
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.
Elevator Repair Service presents ULYSSES
Fisher Center LAB Commission/World Premiere
Created by Elevator Repair Service
Directed by John Collins
Co-Direction and Dramaturgy by Scott Shepherd
Text: Ulysses by James Joyce
Duration: 2 hours and 15 minutes with no intermission
Tickets start at $25; $5 available for Bard students through the Passloff Pass
Following the September 24th matinee, Gideon Lester (the Fisher Center’s artistic director and chief executive) will lead a discussion with David Vichnar (Joyce scholar; assistant professor of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, Charles University), John Collins (director, Ulysses), Scott Shepherd (co-director/dramaturg, Ulysses) and members of the company.
ABOUT ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE
“A heroic company that dares to venture into literary realms.”—New York Times
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.
FUNDING
Ulysses is cocommissioned by and was developed, in part, at Symphony Space.
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.