…A boat that becomes a loom, a shadowy, red-eyed Cyclops, a pub inside a cigar box, live music, shadow puppets, and much more. This three-tiered hero story follows the journeys of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom and Joyce himself. The performance demonstrates how James Joyce interprets an ancient story to fit his own experience in order to write his revolutionary novel, Ulysses.

In 1998, The Rosenbach Museum and Library commissioned Sebastienne Mundheim to create an educational program for elementary students based on the museum’s collection. James Joyce’s manuscript of Ulysses is one of the museum’s most significant holdings. “A Potable Joyce” was developed as the performance component of a larger educational program that sought to introduce students to the value of the manuscript as a document or artifact of the artist/author’s process. The performance introduces the manuscript, the process of writing, a little Joyce and Homer, as well as some new vocabulary. It also opens up discussion about how writers use metaphor as a literary tool. Through discussion and exercise, the program explores how an author collects experiences and images, in order to make his own life experience richer, and in order to build tools for expression. The larger education program includes hands-on art making, discussion, and writing. This larger program was originally conceived and implemented in collaboration with the Fleisher Art Memorial and local schools. “A Potable Joyce” has had many runs including a national tour of Ireland, sponsored by the Ministry of Arts and Culture.