Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

Arts & Entertainment

Theater Review: <em>The Select (The Sun Also Rises)</em>

John Del Signore

Published Sep 18, 2011

Modified Sep 19, 2011

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

View all 4

John Del Signore

Published Sep 18, 2011

Modified Sep 19, 2011

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

As you settle into your seat before the start of The Select (The Sun Also Rises), you may find yourself wondering if Elevator Repair Service has developed Attention Deficit Disorder. After all, the performance you're about to see is only three and a half hours long—less than half the length of their last production, a word-for-word adaptation of The Great Gatsby. But have faith, lovers of long-form theatrical epics: what The Select lacks in length it makes up for in depth, and unless you're an authority on Ernest Hemingway's classic novel, you probably won't notice what's been excised from this otherwise faithful interpretation.

Following the same approach that made Gatz last season's smash hit, director John Collins takes Hemingway's text verbatim (with careful cuts), using it as a literal springboard into a imaginative recreation of the famous novel, which concerns a group of expatriates debauching themselves in Paris and Pamplona in the wake of WWI. Actor Mike Iveson brings a dry, subtle wit to the role of narrator Jake Barnes, a gentlemanly American journalist left impotent from a war injury. Through Jake's sardonic eyes we experience the fumbling decadence of his mostly idle social circle, and the gang's all here on stage: Lucy Taylor plays the brittle man-eater Brett Ashley, who holds the sniveling Robert Cohn (Matt Tierney) in her thrall, as well as pretty much every other gent in the story.

It's a jaunty, ingenuous adaptation, with uniformly stellar performances. Pete Simpson is wickedly nasty as Ashley's latest squeeze Mike Campbell (and he also puts his Blue Man Group percussion skills to good use during a wild second act fiesta dance sequence), the hilarious Vin Knight steals just about every scene with a variety of roles ranging from Count Mippipopolous to the shrewd Pamplona concierge Montoya, Susie Sokol is a scream as the charismatic toreador Pedro Romero, and Kate Scelsa delivers an unforgettably petulant rant as Cohn's jilted lover Frances. It's hard to think of another theater collective that boasts a more fascinating a stable of actors than Elevator Repair Service.

As in Gatz, the ensemble evokes the novel's world with minimal props and maximum ingenuity; as they drink and eat their way through Europe, cafes become bedrooms, chairs become taxis, tables become trout. By simply suggesting the subtle outlines of a world—rather than presenting a naturalistic version of it—Collins invites the spectators to paint the rest of the picture with their own imaginations. It's no accident that this is the same thing we do when we read, and what's so marvelous about The Select is that the actors and the audience collectively re-imagine Hemingway's world, in real time.

Late in the performance, a woman behind me audibly gasped as a bruised Pedro Romero was very nearly gored by a ferocious bull in the ring, as the bullfighting crowd cheered lustily. Of course, the "ring" was no different in appearance from the same lazy cafe where all of The Select's action takes place, and the macho bullfighter was actually the petite Sokol (who was so funny in Gatz as professional golfer Jordan Baker). The bull was represented by a long folding table with cartoonish horns attached to one end. And when Romero finally killed it, for a brief, delicious moment, I felt very sorry for the magnificent beast.

Tagged

elevator repair service

new york theater workshop

opinionist

the sun also rises

theater

John Del Signore

Twitter

Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE arts-entertainment

Will Barnes and Noble in the East Village spell doom for smaller shops? It's complicated.

Independent booksellers are grappling with whether the big-box chain is a threat or an ally in the fight against Amazon.

Sonia Rao

Published Oct 16, 2026 at 12:55 p.m. ET

Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?

We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.

Elizabeth Shwe

and

James Ramsay

Arts & Entertainment

Can eligible NYC singles find love with 30 minutes and some really spicy food?

We went to the Spiciest Supper Club singles night to take the temperature of New York City's dating scene.

Elizabeth Shwe

and

James Ramsay

How the NYC Marathon has changed in the last 50 years

Hannah Frishberg

A visit to Art of Play, the Brooklyn store in an animatronic bird beef with Kelly Clarkson

Sonia Rao

The hottest way to show you're an authentic New Yorker is… riding a Citi Bike?

Lindsay Lee Wallace

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .