Directing Notes for Molly Bloom by Cornel Gabara

James Joyce's groundbreaking Twentieth Century book ULYSSES revolutionized the novel.  This masterpiece, which has inspired endless books and been the subject of numerous university classes in Departments of literature world-wide, was originally banned in the US due to its supposed “pornographic” content.  This however, was   overturned in a ruling by Judge Wolsey, who wrote the following passage in his explanation:

 

"Joyce has attempted it seems to me, with astonishing success to show how the screen of consciousness with its ever-shifting kaleidoscopic impressions carries, as it were on a plastic palimpsest, not only what is in the focus of each man's observation of the actual things about him, but also in a penumbral zone residua of past impressions, some recent and some drawn up by association from the domain of the subconscious."

 

We are interested in capturing this "kaleidoscopic palimpsest" and exploring the mind's stream of consciousness, which transcends time and place.  For these purposes we have chosen to focus on Molly Bloom, the vibrant "Penelope" of the story and segments of her famous soliloquy.

 

 

The show is rated "adult" for sexual content and language.