Ulysses – 24 January 2026

Elevator Repair Service breathes new life into James Joyce’s Ulysses in their latest production at the Public Theater.  An (almost) full reading of the novel, Ulysses fearlessly dives into the chaos and confusion that is James Joyce. They create their own set of theatre conventions for narration, characters’ spoken words, characters’ thoughts embedded in the text, creation of the world around the characters, how to handle scene changes, and how this production was going to indicate skipping ahead in the book. This innovative art form was riveting to watch, and, most importantly, it got many who would find a 700 page book daunting to sit down and experience it. Sporting a functional set (dots), clever costume changes (Enver Chakartash), and lighting (Marika Kent) and sound (Ben Williams) that really leaned into the absurdity of Joyce’s writing, Ulysses keeps the pages turning and the atmosphere building while inviting us to examine what makes a classic—and is that answer more about readers having something to talk about or writers having something to say.

The first act of Ulysses was easy to follow and lulled me into a false sense of security. It contained many human moments, as well as many moments of purposeful overacting (ex. the chapter with the restaurant eating) that had high entertainment value. The second act leaned into Joyce’s bizarre writing style changes and preserved the novel’s characteristic confusion. Though shorter than the first act, once I lost the thread of what Joyce was trying to communicate, I kept fighting to re-locate a message, and came to the conclusion that there may not be one. It is mentioned in the narration that opens this performance that Joyce wrote this way deliberately so that his work would be kept alive through the arguments of professors. Yet what good are the arguments of professors, students, and readers, if there really isn’t a message embedded in this work—if it’s confusing just to be obtuse? If the author is mocking our intellect with his deliberate confusion, what are we meant to walk away thinking and feeling?

Ulysses at the Public leaned into different styles of Joyce’s writing as the book draws to a close, and what I left feeling was humility. Joyce (through Elevator Repair Service) proved his mastery at each successive style in a manufactured experience that reminds us that sometimes, life is random and chaotic and we have to make decisions without full understanding. We have to keep living even in moments of uncomfortable strangeness. We have to keep trying to understand, because when we give up on understanding, we become dangerous beyond all feeling because we fall out of step with the present moment. Good theatre holds you in a present moment that is not your own, and Ulysses really demands that you stick with it and stay there. As a novel, it is frequently abandoned by confused readers. Taking it out of its written form and into a performance gently and geniusly guides us through it. You can’t quit because the next scene is beginning before your very eyes—you’d have to walk out to quit. It keeps you figuratively turning pages because if you chose to abandon trying to understand, you would have to get up and leave in an active way, instead of the passive one of not picking your book back up. I commend the entire team of Ulysses for holding space for something that cannot be fully understood, but does not need to be fully understood to have moments that are deeply appreciated.

I attended this performance on a press pass from the Public Theater press team.