The Sound and the Fury NYC Reviews and Tickets

"It’s a brilliant, sometimes mesmerizing production but if you don’t know the book, or don’t remember your English professor’s lectures about it, you’re going to find it something of a slog...I can’t conceive of a more authentic way to bring Faulkner’s world to the stage. Still, reading 'The Sound and the Fury' beforehand may prove useful; otherwise, you might, like several folks when I attended, find it easier to leave midway, or to catch up on your sleep."
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"'The Sound and The Fury' will not be a straight reading – if that were possible – of Faulkner’s most difficult novel...Retaining only Benjy’s story from the novel’s sprawl, Elevator Repair Service delivers an expressionistic snapshot of the chaos of this once aristocratic family viewed, appropriately, by the most visible manifestation of its disorder."
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"A sadness pervades the spectacle, occasionally relieved by humor reflecting the dysfunctional lives under inspection. The work challenges audiences to keep up with it and make sense out of all of the performances...Not everyone will think it worth spending so much intellectual energy in trying to follow everything...But for those who enjoy such a challenge and don’t find it an interminable slog, the Elevator Repair Service obliges big time."
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"Most of the dozen actors play multiple roles, and it's not always clear who's who at any particular time...I imagine the aim of the production is to have the audience sink into Benjy's skewed consciousness, even if it mightn't pick up on each thing that happens. For me, that connection never took place. 'The Sound and the Fury' came across as a hectic theatrical experiment, viewed from a distance."
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"A master stroke and a missed opportunity at the same time...A few moments stand out, but time and again, I was thinking of what was missing from the book: Faulkner's spot-on depiction of the feuding and one-upmanship that typifies siblings; the subtle shading of race relations; and most of all the humor. "
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"The standout theater company Elevator Repair Service brings 'The Sound and the Fury' to the Public Theater, with spectacular results...Benjy’s innocence and his inability to intellectualize and compartmentalize, make his an immediate, unprejudiced experience of life, of pure, unconditional reality, which is what this captivating, perfectly theatrical production is all about."
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"The famously venturesome Elevator Repair Service brings a sanity, humility and theatrical ingenuity to their interpretation that, like the novel, illuminates the clarity within apparent chaos...For those familiar with 'The Sound and the Fury,' Elevator Repair Service has provided a magical opportunity: the chance to rediscover some of the thrill that came with encountering and gradually embracing one of the great achievements of Western literature for the first time."
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"If you see Elevator Repair Service’s utterly original version of the book’s first chapter, you will learn to see theater, and might quit going. ERS’s production is that pure—a stunning act of choreographed literary transmutation that still retains a humble, goofy sense of humor in its deep reading of a dense modernist text. Every aspect of the show is lovingly crafted...There are moments of shocking clarity that break your heart; so much, everything, is signified."
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