Chronicling the experiences of three Dubliners over the course of a single ordinary day in June 1904, the novel captures the chaotic and fragmented nature of human consciousness. Modeled after Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Ulysses is the latest project by the New York City-based theater company Elevator Repair Service, perhaps best known for Gatz, its award-winning verbatim staging of the entire text of The Great Gatsby.

Building on a rich history of staging modernist texts, Elevator Repair Service takes on this mammoth work of 21st-century literature (in an abridged version!) for their UMS 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, Elevator Repair Service presents an eclectic sampling from Joyce’s life-affirming masterpiece.