THE RABBLE

Incubator Residency

Victorian-based theatre makers THE RABBLE are developing a new epic, 18-part, ten-hour contemporary performance inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Ulysses is a seminal modernist text divided into eighteen episodes, each radically different in narrative style. It is a retelling of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey – Joyce takes Homer’s epic and translates it to the ‘everyman’, where we follow Leopold Bloom over the course of one day. Joyce makes his protagonists relatable and human, and the heroic is made natural (as opposed to a gift from the Gods).

THE RABBLE’S version of the novel will reimagine the story again. Leopold/Odysseus is a woman who we follow through a difficult day. The artists plan to transform mundane, everyday life back into the operatic. Like Joyce, they will investigate radical ways to break open form, with each episode encompassing a different formal experiment ranging from theatre, opera, installation and video.

THE RABBLE are undertaking an Incubator residency with Vitalstatistix, focused on creating a blueprint of the entire work using Gilbert’s Schema as a foundation.

This artist talk will explore the form, themes and future of this exciting and ambitious project.