T
THE main challenge in adapting a popular movie for the stage is not so much to do with form as with audience expectation. Not long ago, I overheard someone coming out of Richard Baron's fine and funny staging of The 39 Steps at Perth Theatre, complaining - surprise, surprise - that it wasn't like the film.
And though it's possible the crowds gathering in Edinburgh this week for Kind Hearts and Coronets are there because they want to see Robert Powell and Colin Baker in the flesh, it's a fair bet it's because they enjoyed the Ealing Comedy from 1949 which starred Alec Guinness.
Adaptor and director Giles Croft nips this problem in the bud. The curtain rises, and we see a television screen. On it, the early scenes of the movie.
Lights up, cue Robert Powell to tell us that yes, there was the film, and yes, before that was the novel, but this - ha, ha - is going to be the true story. As Louis Mazzini, he remains on stage, our genial host, to narrate his own murderous ascendancy to dukedom.
Croft's approach is to lift both the lightness of the movie, and the darkness of the novel, producing a comedy that grows blacker as it goes on. The comic touches are fine, there's a playfulness to the staging around the first murders, even if it's surprising how little fun is made of Colin Baker playing all of the victims. It does appear, however, that the adaptation secretly wants to be a serious study of evil, akin to Macbeth, Don Juan, or Dr Faustus, and by the end, material well suited to black comedy proves too flimsy to support such weight.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article