Why Adapt Children’s Literature?

An adaptation is said to be “the re-casting of a work from one genre to another (adaptation of a novel for the stage, for instance)” ((Pavis, Patrice and Christine Shantz (1998) Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Ltd.  p.14.)). Adapting a novel into a theatre production enables a theatre company to utilise the essence of a previously successful/popular story, while allowing them to intertwine the original text with their own unique ideas. Therefore, making the old become the new.

For a newly established theatre company, we feel creating an adaptation is both a wise move as well as taking a risk.

It allows us to use a story, which has already proven itself to be popular and, if advertised efficiently, will hopefully attract a significantly large audience. However, being that the public will already know the story they are paying to see, adapting the original text into our own form could perhaps mean the audience will not take to it as they did the original.

The act of transforming a novel into a theatre script is not a task to be taken lightly, which is part of the reason why, as a company, we decided to direct our attention towards children’s literature. These stories hold within them magic and imagination, which is unparalleled in the adult world yet the comparably basic story lines and characters allow our company to efficiently adapt the story without tackling the complexities of adult literature.

The simple yet moving story lines will also compliment the elaborate staging our company favours.

 “Complex staging + simple storyline = successful spectacle”

Kate Dawson.

Word Count: 273

Works Cited