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MELBOURNE CELEBRATES JAMES JOYCE WITH NEW PLAY THAT ROASTS THE CLASSICS

Bloomsday in Melbourne proudly presents a brand new play in June based on James Joyce’s famous long-banned novel, Ulysses. HOLY COW! James Joyce Slaughters the Sacred Cows of English Literature, by turns hilarious and blasphemous, is billed as a great way to engage with this seemingly daunting, yet wildly entertaining, book. ‘In 90 minutes Joyce rips through a thousand years of English literature like a lord of language,’ says Joyce expert and Bloomsday’s Artistic Director, Frances Devlin-Glass, ‘and self-servingly prepares the field for his own innovative comic masterpiece. The play also riffs on childbirth and fertility and works its characters as a Cubist artist might. It’s as far from political correctness as one can get, and sassier than what you’d hear just about anywhere else in the Classics!’

Every year, Joyce fans celebrate Ulysses, first published in 1922 and set on 16 June 1904, and Melbourne, UNESCO City of Literature, is internationally recognised as among the leading groups around the world. ‘We’ve been doing this now every year for 25 years straight,’ says Devlin-Glass, ‘and we’ve introduced thousands of Australians to Joyce.’

The group’s 25th production is directed by Jen Dean, who trained at the world-famous Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London and is Director of the Melbourne Shakespeare Company. ‘I’m delighted to be directing HOLY COW,’ says Dean. ‘James Joyce is, like Shakespeare, one of the greats, and it’s a real thrill to get to grips with such a literary giant. There’s the same passionate love of extravagant language – though you’d have to say Joyce gets the prize for bawdiness, and the mercurial turn! We can’t wait to bring Joyce’s irreverent satire of English literature to life, and fortyfivedownstairs is the perfect venue.’