| The Select (The Sun Also Rises) | |
|---|---|
 2011NYTW Off-Broadway promotional poster | |
| Written by | Elevator Repair Service |
| Place premiered | 2010Edinburgh Festival Fringe |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Romance & Adventure |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | 1920s France & Spain |
The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is a stage adaptation ofErnest Hemingway's 1926 novelThe Sun Also Rises byElevator Repair Service theater ensemble. It has been performed in several venues. It premiered at the 2010Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[1] TheOff-Broadway production, which ran from September 11 – October 23, 2011 at theNew York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), earned awards for its sound design. The show directed by John Collins and produced by Ariana Smart Truman and Lindsay Hockaday received the Lucille Lortel Award for being outstanding.[2]
It was performed at theRoyal Lyceum Theatre inEdinburgh in 2010,[3] theArts Bank in Philadelphia in 2010,[4] at ArtsEmerson in Boston in 2011,[1] the NYTW in New York City in 2011,[5][6] the 2012Dublin Theatre Festival,[7] andMcCarter Theatre inPrinceton in 2012.[8] The work, named for a bar at which the protagonists gather,[9] features abullfight on stage.[8] The show is faithful to the original ill-fated romantic triangle between Americans Robert Cohn and Jake Barnes and Brit Lady Brett Ashley that was set in Spain and France. This work is like much of the Elevator Repair Service's other performances in which "the cast recites parts of the book verbatim while also drolly enacting dance, drama and mayhem onstage". The show was notable for its unusual cacophony, which is controlled by the performers rather than sound technicians.[9]
The Off-Broadway production began previews on August 19, 2011 and officially opened on September 11. It was scheduled to run until October 9 and was extended until October 23.[10]
A production atShakespeare Theatre Company inWashington, D.C., opened on February 18, 2017 and will run until April 2.[11]
Matt Tierney and Ben Williams won the 2012Obie Award for Sound Design[12][13] and the 2012Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Sound Design.[14][15] David Zinn was nominated for the Lortel Award in Outstanding Scenic Design.[14]
Lyn Gardner ofThe Guardian, while noting its length, praised the performance in Edinburgh describing it as "theatrical open-heart surgery on Ernest Hemingway's first major success" done with "surgical expertise and a droll, playful humour" that is too long at nearly four hours.[3] Erik Piepenburg ofThe New York Times says that although words are important to this performance, so are sounds.[9] WhenBen Brantley ofThe New York Times saw the 2010 Philadelphia performance, he praised the presentation of the alcoholic consumption and continuous party atmosphere saying "This alcoholic element is what has been conjured so persuasively" and the show is "a wood-paneled temple to drinks past, present and future".[4] However, upon seeing the 2011 Off-Broadway performance, Brantley says "...it never entirely wraps its mind around the style and essence of the book that inspired it".[6]The Village Voice's Helen Shaw describes the show as "a gleefully drunken, offhandedly contemporary animation of Hemingway's hardboiled classic".[5] Adam Hetrick ofPlaybill described the performance as "a dramatic explosion of Hemingway's 1926 novel, that melds text, theatrical avant garde and an evocative soundscape".[1]
