Adaptation in Theatre and Performance – serie

This book focuses on modern theatrical adaptations that rework classic plays in new British and Irish settings. It explores these shifted national contexts and examines what they might reveal about the political and cultural climate of the new setting. In examining the modern setting alongside the country of the original text, it also reveals fascinating resonances between two different national contexts. The book discusses five British and Irish playwrights and their current adaptations, examining well-known dramatists such as Martin McDonagh, Sarah Kane and Brian Friel, while analysing some of their less well-known plays, offering a novel examination of the adaptation process. The book further provides an insightful commentary on some significant events of the twentieth century in Britain and Ireland, such as the historic Labour victory of 1945 and scandals in the Royal Family since the 1990s. This book will appeal to theatre and performance enthusiasts, as well as students and scholars of both theatre and adaptation.

This book examines British playwrights' responses to the work of Shakespeare and his contemporaries since 1945, from Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead to Sarah Kane’s Blasted and Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem. Using the work of Julie Sanders and others working in the fields of Adaptation Studies and intertextual criticism, it argues that this relatively neglected area of drama, widely considered to be adaptation, should instead be considered as appropriation - as work that often mounts challenges to the ideologies and orthodoxies within Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, and questions the legitimacy and cultural authority of Shakespeare’s legacy. The book discusses the work of Howard Barker,  Peter Barnes, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton, David Edgar, Elaine Feinstein and the Women’s Theatre Group, David Greig, Sarah Kane, Dennis Kelly, Bernard Kopps, Charles Marowitz, Julia Pascal and Arnold Wesker.

This book investigates the development of Sherlock Holmes adaptations in British theatre since the turn of the millennium. Sherlock Holmes has become a cultural phenomenon all over again in the twenty-first century, as a result of the television series Sherlock and Elementary, and films like Mr Holmes and the Guy Ritchie franchise starring Robert Downey Jr. In the light of these new interpretations, British theatre has produced timely and topical responses to developments in the screen Sherlocks’ stories. Moreover, stage Sherlocks of the last three decades have often anticipated the knowing, metafictional tropes employed by screen adaptations. This study traces the recent history of Sherlock Holmes in the theatre, about which very little has been written for an academic readership. It argues that the world of Sherlock Holmes is conveyed in theatre by a variety of games that activate new modes of audience engagement.

This book examines the radical reinterpretation of precursor texts and prompts as an innovative form of adaptation for the stage. In this context, stage adaptations are defined as active and risk-taking interventions on pre-existing sources, dramatic and otherwise, that can range from single-authored plays to collaborative creations and devising projects. Radical adaptations have the potential to constitute a cutting edge pathway of exploration in performance, by virtue of operating at the intersection between experimental practice and multiple creative transpositions and crossovers among genres and media. They offer a viable platform for the negotiation of topical concerns embedded into global cultural, socio-political and historical shifts, thus cultivating a genuine bond between theatre and society. This volume considers a range of case studies, from the work of Alexandru Tocilescu to Rimini Protokoll, and is vital reading for those interested in adaptation studies and forms of contemporary theatre practice.

This book examines contemporary approaches to adaptation in theatre through seventeen international case studies. It explores company and directorial approaches to adaptation through analysis of the work of Kneehigh, Mabou Mines, Robert Le Page and Katie Mitchell. It then moves on to look at the transformation of the novel onto the stage in the work of Mitchell, and in The Red Badge of Courage, The Kite Runner, Anne Frank, and Fanny Hill. Next, it examines contemporary radical adaptations of Trojan Women and The Iliad. Finally, it looks at five different approaches to postmodern metatheatrical adaptation in early modern texts of Hamlet, The Changeling, and Faustus, as well as the work of the Neo-Futurists, and the mash-up Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella. Overall, this comprehensive study offers insights into key productions, ideas about approaches to adaptation, and current debates on fidelity, postmodernism and remediation.

This book examines contemporary approaches to adaptation in theatre through seventeen international case studies. It explores company and directorial approaches to adaptation through analysis of the work of Kneehigh, Mabou Mines, Robert Le Page and Katie Mitchell. It then moves on to look at the transformation of the novel onto the stage in the work of Mitchell, and in The Red Badge of Courage, The Kite Runner, Anne Frank, and Fanny Hill. Next, it examines contemporary radical adaptations of Trojan Women and The Iliad. Finally, it looks at five different approaches to postmodern metatheatrical adaptation in early modern texts of Hamlet, The Changeling, and Faustus, as well as the work of the Neo-Futurists, and the mash-up Medea/Macbeth/Cinderella. Overall, this comprehensive study offers insights into key productions, ideas about approaches to adaptation, and current debates on fidelity, postmodernism and remediation.

This book theorizes auteur Robert Lepage’s scenography-based approach to adapting canonical texts. Lepage’s technique is defined here as ‘scenographic dramaturgy’, a process and product that de-privileges dramatic text and relies instead on evocative, visual performance and intercultural collaboration to re-envision extant plays and operas. Following a detailed analysis of Lepage’s adaptive process and its place in the continuum of scenic writing and auteur theatre, this book features four case studies charting the role of Lepage’s scenographic dramaturgy in re-‘writing’ extant texts, including Shakespeare’s Tempest on Huron-Wendat territory, Stravinsky’s Nightingale in a twenty-seven ton pool, and Wagner’s Ring cycle via the infamous, sixteen-million-dollar Metropolitan Opera production. The final case study offers the first interrogation of Lepage’s twenty-first century ‘auto-adaptations’ of his own seminal texts, The Dragons’ Trilogy and Needles & Opium. Though aimed at academic readers, this book will also appeal to practitioners given its focus on performance-making, adaptation and intercultural collaboration.

This book examines the processes of adaptation across a number of intriguing case studies and media. Turning its attention from the 'what' to the 'how' of adaptation, it serves to re-situate the discourse of adaptation studies, moving away from the hypotheses that used to haunt it, such as fidelity, to questions of how texts, authors and other creative practitioners (always understood as a plurality) engage in dialogue with one another across cultures, media, languages, genders and time itself. With fifteen chapters across fields including fine art and theory, drama and theatre, and television, this interdisciplinary volume considers adaptation across the creative and performance arts, with a single focus on the collaborative.

This book examines the processes of adaptation across a number of intriguing case studies and media. Turning its attention from the 'what' to the 'how' of adaptation, it serves to re-situate the discourse of adaptation studies, moving away from the hypotheses that used to haunt it, such as fidelity, to questions of how texts, authors and other creative practitioners (always understood as a plurality) engage in dialogue with one another across cultures, media, languages, genders and time itself. With fifteen chapters across fields including fine art and theory, drama and theatre, and television, this interdisciplinary volume considers adaptation across the creative and performance arts, with a single focus on the collaborative.

This book takes Roland Barthes’s famous proclamation of ‘The Death of the Author’ as a starting point to investigate concepts of authorial presence and absence on various levels of text and performance. By offering a new understanding of ‘the author’ as neither a source of unquestioned authority nor an obsolete construct, but rather as a performative figure, the book illuminates wide-ranging aesthetic and political aspects of ‘authorial death’ by asking: how is the author constructed through cultural and political imaginaries and erasures, intertextual and intertheatrical references, re-performances and self-referentiality? And what are the politics and ethics of these constructions?

This book takes Roland Barthes’s famous proclamation of ‘The Death of the Author’ as a starting point to investigate concepts of authorial presence and absence on various levels of text and performance. By offering a new understanding of ‘the author’ as neither a source of unquestioned authority nor an obsolete construct, but rather as a performative figure, the book illuminates wide-ranging aesthetic and political aspects of ‘authorial death’ by asking: how is the author constructed through cultural and political imaginaries and erasures, intertextual and intertheatrical references, re-performances and self-referentiality? And what are the politics and ethics of these constructions?

This book examines the recent trend for re-performance and how this impacts on the relationship between live performance and death. Focusing specifically on examples of performance art the text analyses the relationship between performance, re-performance and death, comparing the process of re-performance to the process of mourning and arguing that both of these are processes of adaptation and survival. Using a variety of case studies, including performances by Ron Athey, Julie Tolentino, Martin O’Brien, Sheree Rose, Jo Spence and Hannah Wilke, the book explores performances which can be considered acts of re-performance, as well as performances which examine some of the critical concerns of re-performance, including notions of illness, loss and death. By drawing upon both philosophical and performance studies discourses the text takes a novel approach to the relationship between re-performance, mourning and death.

This book examines the recent trend for re-performance and how this impacts on the relationship between live performance and death. Focusing specifically on examples of performance art the text analyses the relationship between performance, re-performance and death, comparing the process of re-performance to the process of mourning and arguing that both of these are processes of adaptation and survival. Using a variety of case studies, including performances by Ron Athey, Julie Tolentino, Martin O’Brien, Sheree Rose, Jo Spence and Hannah Wilke, the book explores performances which can be considered acts of re-performance, as well as performances which examine some of the critical concerns of re-performance, including notions of illness, loss and death. By drawing upon both philosophical and performance studies discourses the text takes a novel approach to the relationship between re-performance, mourning and death.

Post-war European adaptations of Hamlet are defined by ambiguities and inconsistencies. Such features are at odds with the traditional model of adaptation, which focuses on expanding and explaining the source. Inspired by Derrida’s deconstruction, this book introduces a new interpretative paradigm. Central to this paradigm is the idea that an act of adaptation consists in foregrounding gaps and incoherencies in the source; it is about questioning rather than clarifying. The book explores this paradigm through seven representative European adaptations of Hamlet produced between the 1960s and the 2010s: dramatic texts, live theatre productions, and a mixed reality performance. They systematically challenge the post-Romantic idea of Hamlet as a tragedy of great passions and heroic deeds. What does this say about Hamlet’s impact on post-war theatre and culture? The deconstructive analyses offered in this book show how adaptations of Hamlet capture crucial anxieties and concerns of post-war Europe, such as political disillusionment, postmodern scepticism, and feminist resistance, revealing exciting connections between European traditions.

Post-war European adaptations of Hamlet are defined by ambiguities and inconsistencies. Such features are at odds with the traditional model of adaptation, which focuses on expanding and explaining the source. Inspired by Derrida’s deconstruction, this book introduces a new interpretative paradigm. Central to this paradigm is the idea that an act of adaptation consists in foregrounding gaps and incoherencies in the source; it is about questioning rather than clarifying. The book explores this paradigm through seven representative European adaptations of Hamlet produced between the 1960s and the 2010s: dramatic texts, live theatre productions, and a mixed reality performance. They systematically challenge the post-Romantic idea of Hamlet as a tragedy of great passions and heroic deeds. What does this say about Hamlet’s impact on post-war theatre and culture? The deconstructive analyses offered in this book show how adaptations of Hamlet capture crucial anxieties and concerns of post-war Europe, such as political disillusionment, postmodern scepticism, and feminist resistance, revealing exciting connections between European traditions.

Bosnian Literature on Stage and Screen aims to reconcile theoretical approaches with theatrical and cinematic practices by examining two adaptations based on works by the Bosnian author Meša Selimović. The book is informed by scholarship in film and theatre adaptation theories, and is grounded in a comparative approach that focuses on the interplay of sign systems and codes unique to screen and stage. The book looks closely at two adaptations: a screen adaptation of the novel The Fortress and a stage adaptation of the novel The Island.

Bosnian Literature on Stage and Screen aims to reconcile theoretical approaches with theatrical and cinematic practices by examining two adaptations based on works by the Bosnian author Meša Selimović. The book is informed by scholarship in film and theatre adaptation theories, and is grounded in a comparative approach that focuses on the interplay of sign systems and codes unique to screen and stage. The book looks closely at two adaptations: a screen adaptation of the novel The Fortress and a stage adaptation of the novel The Island.

Adapting the Novel for the Stage: Translation in Intermedial Circulation proposes an integrative framework for understanding novel to stage adaptations. Through a translational lens, it introduces a twofold model that examines creative dynamics through intersemiotic translation and sociocultural dynamics through Bourdieusian sociology. It expands Bourdieu’s theory of international circulation into adaptation studies and introduces the concept of intermedial circulation. Through case studies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, A Clockwork Orange, and Frankenstein, the monograph offers a framework for understanding how novels are transformed into performance through signs, agents, and institutions. It aims to provide a fresh perspective for researchers working at the intersection of translation, theatre, adaptation, multimodality, media, and literary studies.

Fantasy is one of the most beloved genres of fiction that has only relatively recently entered academia in all its magical glory. And yet, one of its developing branches, fantasy theatre, has to date not been addressed in detail in scholarly circles, despite the irrefutable popularity of plays like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child or The Book of Dust on British stages. Contemporary Fantasy on Stage seeks to rectify that by tackling the emerging trends and practices in bringing contemporary fantasy to life on stage. Situated in the matrix of theatre analysis, adaptation studies, popular culture studies, and global storytelling practices, this book examines the development of the aesthetics of British fantasy theatre.