The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Adapted by Weylin Symes
Directed by Greg Smucker
March 17-April 3, 2005
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING:
"...a concise adaptation by artistic director Weylin Symes is brought vividly to life in a stellar performance by actor Richard McElvain. McElvain embodies Hemingway's everyday hero with utmost care." Robert Nesti, The Boston Herald
Read the Boston Herald's review, "Stoneham's Hemingway Classic a must-'Sea'"
"The Old Man and the Sea is a success, thanks to a winning adaptation, strong production values, and a bravura performance by veteran actor Richard McElvain." Rich Fahey, The Daily Item
"Largely due to a sterling performance by Richard McElvain, Stoneham Theatre does, indeed, land its big fish... The fish's final struggles still grip us, and as staged by director Greg Smucker and enacted by McElvain, they play out as cleanly as the original prose." Thomas Garvey, The Boston Globe
"The Old Man and the Sea could well be one of the must-see efforts of this season, a tribute to Hemingway's artistic vision. Richard McElvain is the perfect choice for this role... and award-winning designer Richard Chambers creates a magical setting for the tale." Will Stackman, AisleSay.com
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and led to its author’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Today, fifty years later, the Hemingway estate has granted Stoneham Theatre the rights to create and produce the first-ever English stage adaptation of this classic story.
“I have loved this book my entire life,” says Artistic Director Weylin Symes, who adapted the script. “But in the end I had to let go of certain pieces – no boat, no fish, no ocean. There is nothing that you can do onstage that can match the imagination of Ernest Hemingway’s words. So, I had to leave a lot of mystery and rely on the audience to create images in their own imaginations, just as they would when reading the book.”
Richard McElvain, who appears in the title role, has been acting and directing in the Boston area for nearly thirty years. In 1999, he received an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Actor for his work with The Súgán Theatre Company in Conor McPherson’s one-man show Saint Nicholas, which later moved to the American Repertory Theatre for an extended run. McElvain’s stage credits include To Kill a Mockingbird, Bang the Drum Slowly, and Lady from Maxim’s (Huntington Theatre); Antigone and Dublin Carol (Nora Theatre); Barking Sharks, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Unexpected Tenderness (Gloucester Stage); and The Weir, Sylvia, Tartuffe and Twelfth Night (New Repertory Theatre). He has also appeared in film and television, including Mermaids (Orion Pictures), What’s the Worst That Could Happen (MGM), and Spenser for Hire (Warner Brothers).
The Old Man and the Sea is a classic story by one of America's most celebrated writers that tells the universal tale of humanity's ever-changing relationship with nature.