James Joyce’s controversial modernist novel Ulysses was published a century ago, and its effect on fiction was profound. The 730-page novel indulged deeply in the thoughts of ordinary Irish folk, paralleled Homer’s The Odyssey and was full of bawdy, fun humor.
For Arís Theatre, the book’s anniversary was a cause for celebration, so the troupe has taken on the challenge of staging Irish playwright Dermot Bolger’s adaptation, which will run at 7 Stages through June 26.
Rob Shaw-Smith, Arís’ board chair and one of its founders, said the book’s centennial was a “cracking moment to put the play on.” The company had done staged readings of the script since 2016, but this is its first full production.
Director Clint Thornton believes Joyce’s gigantic, complicated tale — made more accessible in Bolger’s 2012 adaption, being given its U.S. premiere by Arís — will resonate with audiences.
“I think it’s a celebration,” Thornton said during a recent group Zoom conversation. “The whole novel, the whole play is a celebration of life. It’s a celebration of messy, contradictory, joyful, sorrowful, invigorating, exciting, challenging, daunting life.”
The story takes place during the ordinary day of June 16, 1904, in the life of Leopold Bloom (Jeffery Zwartjes). He moves through Dublin with his writer friend Stephen Dedalus (Brett Everingham), trying to return home to his passionate wife Molly (Kara Cantrell). Bloom’s interactions with lots of other Dubliners along the way make up the bulk of the narrative.
“Oh, everything about the book is challenging,” Thornton said. “But Joyce really focused on this idea of the mythic as mundane. So Leo Bloom is a mythic hero, even though he’s going through a very normal day full of mundane activities, but it’s also a day that includes the peaks and valleys of life. There’s a funeral. He enquires about a newborn baby. There’s all of the marriage complications. What I tried to do was keep that mythic-as-mundane quality through the script. But I tried to give the production more of a mythic foundation.”
The show’s design includes nautical elements to evoke the sea and The Odyssey. It has nearly 300 lighting cues. And the play takes place all over Dublin, yet the Arís set has a bed placed at center stage.
Narrating the play with Molly’s thoughts, which famously make up the final chapter of the novel, Cantrell plays all her scenes in the bed.
“It’s interesting that who Molly is in that bed is everything, whether she’s the lover to her paramour, the wife to her husband or the mother to the children she birthed in that bed,” the actress said.
“She’s so rich. In some ways, she’s this very specific person, clearly, but she’s also very universal. For me, approaching it was finding the everywoman in her. I think she has a uniquely feminine perspective, but she’s not dainty or delicate. She’s very powerful, very strong. She’s a woman of passion and drives. She knows who she is. She has her own mind.”
Cantrell believes long-married people will connect to the struggles of the Blooms.
“Molly’s not that different from a lot of women, a lot of people who’ve been in long marriages,” she said. “They’ve had some traumas and ups and downs. Ultimately, she’s a very passionate woman. That passion is physical. That passion is emotional. She’s very much in love with her husband, but they can’t seem to connect. So she explores her passions elsewhere. But ultimately, she really wants to be with her husband.”
An accomplished actor, comedian and puppeteer, Zwartjes is a nice fit for Leopold, Thornton said.
“Jeffery is amazing, a perfect Leo Bloom for our time, for this year, for this city,” the director said. “He is so bold, so willing to go immediately to the most intense, hard places for him without a moment’s hesitation. He just sums up so much about what is going on with Bloom. He’s a really excellent way in for the audience into this marriage and this whole story.”
Five other actors, including Shaw-Smith, embody a wide and eclectic range of characters.
“The primary character I play is a character named Lenehan, who is only really interested in horse racing,” Shaw-Smith said. “He likes to check out the odds with the bookies and discuss that in the pub with his friends. We get little sense of his other life, beyond what it means to put money on horses and, of course, lose money on horses.”
Shaw-Smith said he also plays a constable, a carriage driver and an attendee at a funeral.
“Don’t forget Bella!” Thornton reminded him.
“Oh God, I blocked that one out!” Shaw-Smith joked. “I’m also playing the madam of a brothel, Bella Cohen! So, I mean, that’s not a stretch, but it’s great fun.”
Shaw-Smith said embodying that character involved exploring Bella’s physicality and humor.
“All of these characters are fundamentally humorous and lovable,” he said. “And they’re really watchable if they’re well-done, and we think they are.”
Joyce’s complex approach to storytelling meant that the director and cast had to dissect the text during rehearsals and assure that the audience understands all its depth. Every scene, moment or feeling within the involved tale carries meaning.
“Each very short scene that happens between two or three characters has layers and layers of stuff that must be unpacked before it can be fully realized,” Shaw-Smith said. “It doesn’t happen magically. It’s quite hard work intellectually to plumb the psychological depths of even just a two-line scene.”
Ulysses is occasionally crass and sexy, though, and it’s aimed at adults.
“This is all layered with humor,” Shaw-Smith said. “There’s nothing about this that’s uncomfortable in the sense of serious portrayals of sexuality. The veneer is always humorous, which allows us to go a lot further than Atlanta might normally expect.”
Thornton believes that the ultimate message of Ulysses is to embrace life.
“Life is something to be relished,” he explained. “Life is something gargantuan and challenging and messy and beautiful and rewarding and disappointing. I hope this show gives our audience some kind of permission to live in a deeper, more connected mode than they are now.”
::
Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His novel Impacted was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
