Adaptations

There seems a flood of drama adaptations lately. Perhaps it was because there was an Arts Festival focusing on performing arts in the past month. Or it could be that after attending a 15-hour course exploring the difference and effectiveness of films that have been adapted from plays, I just became more aware of drama adaptations.

I made a regular trip to the City Hall to collect flyers of coming performances. As I sat down for my lunch, I looked through the flyers again.

One said Taming of the Shrew. “This all-new Academy production offers a modern interpretation of the Shakespeare’s classics…. will provide new insights on this battle of love.” I ponder on the word 'modern'. Perhaps Katherina is a powerful female executive holding a top position of a large corporation. But during this modern day, will any younger daughter eager and ready to wed patiently wait for her elder sister to get married first ? In fact, the majority of the younger population may not have a sibling, since the birth rate is below 2%.

I move on to the next flyer. Cherry Inc. Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. And a web URL address. That was all the English that appeared on the second flyer. Reading the Chinese synopsis, the story transgress twenty years from 1988 to 2008 on how Alvin and Billy, having nothing initially, managed to build a business empire through buyouts, including an usurpation of their benefactor's properties and company. That doesn't sound exactly like Cherry Orchard. How is this related to Anton's play, I wondered. "It took a lifetime for a peasant to become rich then. The story of Cherry Orchard could take place many times within a lifetime today." (my best effort translation into English). So, we can always relate two different pieces of work by "inspiration". Perhaps the muse hit us all, but differently.

Moving on to the next one. Frankenstein. I have seen the flyer previously. Maybe it's because I haven't read the book, and hence I have not had the chance to be impressed by Frankenstein. Perhaps it could be that the last theatre I watched at the same venue that Frankenstein is being performed was a let-down. Or it's simply I am suffering momentarily from theatre fatigue. For reasons not clear to me, I am not keen to see this theatre adaptation from a novel.

The proliferation of adaptations say much about how difficult it is to create a story. A story with credible, interesting characters. A plot which is engaging. Credible, but not necessary realistic. Harry Potter fans do not believe Harry Potter exists, but what does that matter ? We need to escape from our monotonous life and live in a fantasy, or live another life, temporarily. We want to mock at, to be laughed at, to cry, to be terrified, to be overwhelmed, to be enraged, to be saddened. We have to find someone who understand, a playwright, a director, an actor. The production doesn't have to be original, but we need to see something different, in the sense that we haven't seen it that way previously. Dialogues that resonate more, words that strike a chord now, characters that we understand or sympathize or despise or love or hate more or less than before. This other world of theatre that is startling, beautiful, tragic, comical, dazzling, powerful, shocking, mysterious, imaginary, help me to comprehend my own world better. It helps me to adapt to my world.