The Select (The Sun Also Rises)
The Select (The Sun Also Rises) is a stage adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, created by the Elevator Repair Service theater ensemble. The company has staged it at several venues, beginning with the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Its Off-Broadway run at the New York Theatre Workshop in New York City ran from September 11 to October 23, 2011 and earned praise for its sound design.
Directed by John Collins and produced by Ariana Smart Truman and Lindsay Hockaday, the show revisits the novel’s famous romance triangle among Americans Jake Barnes and Robert Cohn and Brit Lady Brett Ashley, set in 1920s Spain and France. The production is named for a bar where the characters meet and includes an onstage bullfight.
In Elevator Repair Service’s style, the cast recites passages from the book verbatim while also performing dance, drama, and mayhem onstage. The performance features a distinctive, performer-controlled sound world rather than traditional sound design.
Locations and runs have included the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh (2010), the Arts Bank in Philadelphia (2010), ArtsEmerson in Boston (2011), the NYTW in New York (2011), the Dublin Theatre Festival (2012), and McCarter Theatre in Princeton (2012). A production at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. opened in February 2017 and ran into April.
Awards and reception: Matt Tierney and Ben Williams won the 2012 Obie Award for Sound Design and the 2012 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Sound Design. David Zinn was nominated for the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design. Critics noted the show’s long running time (nearly four hours) but praised its bold, playful approach, strong use of sound, and the way it blends the novel’s text with live performance.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 10:59 (CET).