‘The Select’ (‘The Sun Also Rises’): Good but Long

By Peter Rosenstein

The new play at Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) Lansburgh Theater, The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is definitely worth seeing for many reasons; but it’s way too long. With a first act of one hour and fifteen minutes and a second act of one hour and forty-five minutes the production could have easily been shortened by at least thirty minutes and you wouldn’t have felt cheated in any way. In his Director’s Note in the program John Collins talked about how when the Company first set out to take this Hemingway book and turn it into a play they wrestled with the chore of turning a 260 page book into a two and a half hour play using Hemingway’s words. Obviously he decided in the end two and a half hours wasn’t enough; I think it clearly would have been.

The Shakespeare is hosting this production by the Elevator Repair Service Company which is based in New York City. They create productions with an ongoing ensemble and that ensemble includes some brilliant actors.  Deciding to use Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises as the basis for a production was an interesting choice. It is such a well-known book and because of that many people have the characters and locations already envisioned in their mind. So using Hemingway’s words the company had to also produce a set that was believable to both those who had and those who hadn’t read the book. It meant they had to produce sets to match Hemingway’s descriptive vision of a Paris café, a lazy day of trout fishing, a bullfight, and the excitement of the Pamplona Festival and have people believe it. This they did brilliantly use simply design and incredible sound effects. When you can accept the use of a folding table with horns as a bull; see trout jumping out of a stream behind the main set and laugh but still understand it; you know they succeeded.

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