Comments | adiva_calandia: [via e-mail] So I'm in this Adaptation class.

adiva_calandia

[via e-mail] So I'm in this Adaptation class.

Nov 09, 2010 06:14

Dramaturgy III: Adaptation. We've been reading and watching adaptations of various theatrical texts all semester: The Tempest and Forbidden Planet (which is THE MOST FUN to MST), Othello and A Play About A Handkerchief, Richard III and The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, etc. Each student has also been working on a project in which we examine a ( Read more... )

writing, dramaturgy, cmu

Comments 17

lienne November 9 2010, 15:18:23 UTC

...

Hamlet.

Lion King.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

lienne November 9 2010, 15:18:41 UTC

also feminist rewrite of Princess Bride fuck yes the end.

adiva_calandia November 9 2010, 15:33:47 UTC

Have you never heard that claim? It was supposedly pitched as "Hamlet meets Bambi in Africa." I mean, it's about a prince whose father is killed by his brother; the uncle takes over the kingdom unjustly; the prince spends some time in exile with his two goofy buddies. There's even a pompous old advisor character.

Of course, the truth is that Lion King is much more of an adaptation outright ripoff of Kimba, the White Lion, though you'll never get Disney to admit it.

eatenbyfangirls November 9 2010, 21:04:47 UTC

Admittedly, they continued the claim further with Lion King 1 1/2. The concept for the spin off is based around Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Thread 6

bookelfe November 9 2010, 15:33:35 UTC

I am of no help; I will always vote for the Tam Lin adaptation.

remindmeofthe November 9 2010, 16:05:28 UTC

I know fuck-all about stage adaptations, but I was looking around my room hoping for a random source of inspiration to answer the question, and I found one: Pat Barker's Regeneration. It's a fantastic book, and I've no doubt that really interesting things could be done onstage with some of its themes and scenes. I kind of want this now.

rymenhild November 9 2010, 18:31:41 UTC

Whoa, interesting. But all the important characters are male, except Prior's girlfriend. You might be able to do something interesting with genderswap, but be aware that almost every man in the book (well, appropriately, given the historical figures on whom they're based!) is gay until proven bisexual.

I also would like to see that Princess Bride adaptation.

If you're interested in playing with Greece and India together, there are a number of obvious sources surrounding Alexander the Great. Maybe a take on Renault's Persian Boy in which the protagonists of the play are Bagoas and Roxane?

remindmeofthe November 9 2010, 18:50:14 UTC

But all the important characters are male

This is true and, given the WWI-era mental hospital for soldiers setting, inevitable. Barker does her best to include the female perspective, I think, but it would still be a pretty male-centric cast in an adaptation. The dealings with sexuality are interesting, though; there is actually a play in existence about Sassoon and Owens's friendship, and I'm keen to read it and see a different take on it.

walksbyherself November 10 2010, 01:21:21 UTC

If you're interested in playing with Greece and India together, there are a number of obvious sources surrounding Alexander the Great. Maybe a take on Renault's Persian Boy in which the protagonists of the play are Bagoas and Roxane?

I VOTE THIS.

/Alexander nerd

walksbyherself November 10 2010, 01:53:19 UTC

I am trying to think of helpful suggestions, but am getting nowhere. Possibly I just need to go into my room and stare at my bookshelves for a while.

On a "this is a logical link if you live in my brain" note: there is this book you need to read, because even though it is also the second in a mystery series set in an AU!England where they capitulate to Hitler and they're currently trying to assassinate said Hitler, the assassination plot centers on a theatre where they are staging a production of Hamlet where Hamlet is a woman and in between the scheming and the investigating and the fearing for one's life, there is also a delicious pulling apart of the play text and what the change to Hamlet's gender changes and doesn't change about the text.

[Pea Ess - That thread went frighteningly well. Suspect Doll will now get drunk regardless.]

adiva_calandia November 10 2010, 01:57:55 UTC

Ooooooooooh. That sounds AMAZING.

[It did! Poor Doll. Ariadne might do the same. Possibly with her off-screen Arthur, for better cuddling.]

walksbyherself November 10 2010, 02:38:57 UTC

It is AWESOME. The first book is excellent too, although it doesn't have theatre subplot of fantasticness; I haven't read the third, because it is only in hardcover and I am cheap.

[Ariadne is wise! Doll long-distance high fives her for her excellent decision making.]

rymenhild November 10 2010, 05:08:00 UTC

The one with the gender-swapped Hamlet is the second book in a trilogy. Read Book 1, Farthing, first.

batyatoon November 10 2010, 02:50:57 UTC

I want to see that theatrical version of Princess Bride. Yes.

I can't imagine House of Leaves working as anything but a book, honestly.

... I kind of love Puck and the First Fairy having that kind of relationship. For srs. And now I have to ask you (again? I can't remember) if you've ever read the Liavek books.

adiva_calandia November 10 2010, 02:57:09 UTC

I mean, if I were going to do a movie version of HoL, I'd want to film The Navidson Record. Just that would be plenty.

I was so hoping that Puck and the FF were going to have that relationship in the production I'm working on, but while the director was interested in beefing up the FF's stage time, he wasn't much interested in fleshing out her character -- not nearly as much as I was, anyway. It will be the subtext to their relationship in my heart, though.

I have not read the Liavek books. *intriguedface*