‘The Sound and the Fury’ is a confusing yet engrossing Faulkner reboot

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

You could expect “The Sound and the Fury” to be a tedious slog. And yet, strangely, it’s not.

This fearful anticipation comes from the fact that the show is a verbatim staging of the first part of Faulkner’s novel of the same name — which is legendarily hard to get through, with a plotless chronology that jumps all over the place and a confusing stream-of-consciousness structure.

As if this weren’t foreboding enough, different actors play the same person at different times, and there’s no traditional characterization.

Don’t go in expecting to understand everything, and you won’t be disappointed.

Fans of Elevator Repair Service’s “Gatz” — a seven-hour, freak hit adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” — will be similarly excited by the company’s earlier take on Faulkner, which is now being reprised at the Public.

Excerpt from “‘The Sound and the Fury’ is a confusing yet engrossing Faulkner reboot” by Elisabeth Vincentelli. Read the full article here.