Review: ‘Ulysses’ compresses one day into a dense, demanding adaptation
6 / 10
Ulysses—on the page or stage—isn’t for the intellectually fatigued or those not well-caffeinated. Compacted into a brisk two hours and forty minutes, co-directors John Collins and Scott Shepherd and their creative team employ a bevy of props, projections, and screeching sound cues (courtesy of Ben Williams) to indicate the passage of time. Recurring themes ranging from anti-Semitism and nationalism to repressed sexuality appear throughout Joyce’s text. The seven-person ensemble undertakes dozens of roles, and while plenty of captivating moments surface, the whole fails to be greater than the sum of the parts.
