James Joyce’s Ulysses—modernism’s 800-page monument to stream-of-consciousness narration, linguistic invention, and a single day in Dublin—is not the most obvious candidate for a children’s show. Helen Gregg knows this. So when Branar, the Galway-based theatre company that she belongs to, committed to adapting the whole novel for young audiences, her reaction in the rehearsal room was understandable: “Whose idea was this?”
Four years later, You’ll See—adapted by Marc Mac Lochlainn and Gregg, directed by Mac Lochlainn, and performed by Gregg—closes the 2026 Bealtaine Theatre Festival in Toronto on June 6 and 7. It’s the festival’s one all-ages dramatic offering, and it arrives at the Corleck Building, the Canada Ireland Foundation’s striking (and almost complete) new waterfront venue at 3 Eireann Quay, at the base of Bathurst Street.
An improbable commission
The show’s origin story is as improbable as its premise. In 2022, Ireland marked the centenary of Ulysses with a project called Ulysses 2.2 that invited 18 artists and companies to respond to the novel’s 18 sections. Branar was the sole company producing work for young audiences, so they were assigned section two, in which Stephen Dedalus is teaching in a boys’ school. Mac Lochlainn felt that this excerpt, lifted out of context, wouldn’t land for children unfamiliar with the book.
“So in his wisdom, he said, ‘let’s do the whole thing,'” Gregg laughs. What emerged from a literal frenzy of creative work is a 40-minute performance that is built around three oversized pop-up books, designed and created by visual artist Maeve Clancy. Painted to resemble the iconic blue cover of the first edition of Joyce’s novel—but with the play-on-words title “You’ll See” where “Ulysses” should be—they unfold into intricate paper tableaux of Dublin, circa 1904. “The books themselves are so beautiful, and they’re the star of the show, really,” says Gregg. “Every page I turn is like another beautiful image.”
Gregg narrates, manipulates Clancy’s cardboard cut-out characters, and slips into voices, but doesn’t transform into them. “I’m a storyteller in this show. It’s very simple… I’m telling the story to the audience—explaining, ‘This is the story we’re going to tell. These are the main characters. We’re going to follow them—stick with me!'”
You’ll See … a way through Ulysses
The adaptation follows characters Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus from dawn to dusk, tracing where they go and how their paths finally cross in the novel. Streamlining Ulysses meant hard choices—and some quiet invention. “The most challenging thing was just to be able to find a through line that made sense,” Gregg explains. It needed to be “in some way loyal to the original source, but able to work as a standalone piece. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
Every section preserves at least a few lines of Joyce’s actual words. But Gregg and Mac Lochlainn also added small connective details to help the story track. “There are some things that happen in our version of the story that don’t happen in the book. Little tiny logistical things,” she explains. At a funeral early in the story, for instance, a character now sets up a later scene explicitly—”He doesn’t say that in the book, but we’ve got it in because that’s what happens later, and it makes it easier to understand.”
And what about the novel’s racier elements? As Gregg concedes with a laugh, “the most interesting things that happen are not appropriate for children.” Such events are handled deftly, but the material is not excised entirely — with the result that just last year, a group of perceptive 12-year-olds in Queens peppered her after the show with questions about Molly Bloom and Blazes Boylan: “Is she cheating on him? What’s happening here?”
For the devotees and the Joyce-challenged alike
Ulysses—monumental, massive, meandering, and masterful— is probably as feared as it is celebrated. Gregg herself confesses that she hadn’t read Ulysses before the project, and was still working through the later (and more complex) chapters, while she was creating the show. “I’m an expert in my show, but I’m really not an expert in the book,” she concedes.
Initially, she worried that Joyce devotees might bristle at the liberties she and the Branar team have taken: “I was a little bit scared that they would say, ‘Oh, what? They’ve left that bit out!’ ‘And you’ve shifted that around!’ But that’s never the case. People always appreciate it.” Even better, she can always spot the true fans in the audience: “They chortle at little things that only make sense if you’ve read the book … a few Easter eggs.”
And what about the Irishness of it all: the accent, the idioms, the turns of phrase that might feel alien to North American ears? In Gregg’s experience, this is part of the production’s unique gift. “Sometimes people don’t quite understand the phrases that the characters say, but that’s all part of the colour of it. This is a part of Irish culture, so that’s of interest in itself.”
A wander around old Dublin
You’ll See has charmed audiences of all ages across Ireland and the United States. Children are drawn to the images and the little characters: “They’re kind of like dolls for them”. And many adults are grateful for a way into a book they’ve never had the courage to start or the stamina to finish. “For adults, if they’ve ever tried to—or thought about trying to—read Ulysses, this is your Cliff’s Notes,” Gregg laughs.
“It’s basically like going for a wander around old Dublin for a day in June. It’s low tech, in a world of screens with lots of gadgets and all the rest of it. It’s paper and storytelling. And there’s a soundscape and beautiful music, which was written by a musician in Galway, Ireland… who’s from Seattle, actually!”
It’s the perfect reason to make your way to the waterfront and spend an hour inside the beautiful Corleck. You’ll see!
You’ll See plays June 6 and 7 at 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm, and is recommended for ages 8 and up. For tickets and information, visit bealtainefestival.ca. We recommend budgeting extra travel time: the venue sits right near Billy Bishop Airport, so traffic and parking can be slow.
© Scott Sneddon, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
