Adelaide Festival 2010 - The Sound and the Fury

Presented by Adelaide Festival

"Read this. It's a real son of a bitch."
With those words, William Faulkner summed up his masterwork, The Sound and the Fury, to a friend. Today it is often considered one of the 100 greatest books of all time. And it's still a "real son of a bitch" to embrace. This was the book that paved the way for modern literature, developing the stream-of-consciousness style pioneered by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Only the most daring and assured theatre company would attempt to bring such a work to the stage. Not surprisingly, that company is Elevator Repair Service. Over the last 20 years, this hot property from New York City has developed a cult following for its wild and edgy literary adventures. With The Sound and the Fury, Elevator Repair Service has taken on the most challenging chapter of this demanding work, April 7, 1928 (otherwise known as Benjy's Chapter), to achieve a work that played to sold-out houses in an extended run in New York.

Set in an eerily - and appropriately - timeless living room, the veneer of this Southern family is scraped bare to reveal a troubled past told through the eyes and addled memories of their mute and mentally retarded son, Benjy. Accordingly, past and present shift, characters transmogrify and worlds collide with effortless fluidity as the ensemble romps through this dark story with bursts of high-energy humour and pathos. Almost impossibly, what they do through their vivid ingenuity is illuminate the clarity within the chaos and turn absurdity into reality.

Text: WILLIAM FAULKNER
Created by: ELEVATOR REPAIR SERIVCE
Direction: JOHN COLLINS