Return to Ulysses

I seem to have a compulsion to read a very big book every now and then. Currently (and for the foreseeable future!) it is Proust's A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. A year ago it was James Joyce's Ulysses, which took me a huge chunk of the summer to read. So when I saw that a production of Ulysses was coming to the Tron Theatre I rushed to obtain tickets for me and my theatre going chum Heather.
First of all we went, at Heather's suggestion, to Café Gandolfi, an old haunt with many good memories for me, and the meal was very nice; we both declared that we must go back there more often.
The performance of Ulysses did not disappoint. The cast were very good, particularly the actors playing Molly and Leopold. Molly was amazingly like my mental image of the character with a voluptuous figure and red curls. The story translated well to the stage, in fact I thought it was better when performed than read. I think the length of the play was about two hours and twenty minutes, so it was definitely condensed but it didn't feel as if it was cut short in any way. Heather and I both noticed a woman sitting behind us with a very annoying laugh; plenty of people were laughing at appropriate moments during the play but this person seemed to be trying to demonstrate that she found it more amusing than anyone else. However it didn't spoil the play for us. The bit that dragged for me was the late night hallucinations of Leopold and Stephen Daedalus, which was not surprising because it also dragged for me when I read the book.
It's always a pleasant experience going to the theatre with Heather because we both enjoy trying new plays and it's fun discussing them afterwards. The play was a welcome return to Ulysses for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.