Anna Burnside reviews a ‘charming’ adaptation of a classic novel.
Eight-year-olds are not the obvious audience for modernist literature. Even when it’s told with charming pop-up books and tiny cardboard figures.
Has this stopped Irish company Branar shoehorning Ulysses into 45 minutes for primary school children? Not a bit of it.
Helen Gregg, in plus-twos and a tweed tammy, does an astounding job of telling the story of June 16, 1904. She has a soundtrack and some delightful visual aids, but it’s her friendly period delivery that gives the story place and pace.
You’ll See is, for all kinds of reasons, an abridged version of Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus’s sprawling day. For comedy purposes there’s a lot of focus on Blazes Boylan, the theatrical entrepreneur who would, if he was Guinness, drink himself.
There’s also a lot of offal and a couple of toilet breaks. This age of audience has very specific interests, even if they have never eaten a juicy pig’s kidney themselves.
For those of us who used a bus pass to get to the Pleasance but want to pass in intellectual society, this is a jolly three quarters of an hour well spent.
You’ll See… performs at the Pleasance Courtyard (The Green) at 12:00 until August 24, 2025.
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