Adaptation is no easy task.
What are you going to do adapt? Why this? Why now? Are you going to be saying something new through your adaptation that was not said in the original? Are you changing the form in which this original piece takes places, ie. book to film? Is your adaptation being used to bring forth inequalities and possible discrimination within the source text? Is your adaptation taken from more than one source? Is your adaptation asking the audience to reconsider a position they had on a famous literary classic? Are you just adapting something because really you have no imagination or creativity, and it’s much easier to alter someone else’s work than come up with something new these days?….. (okay that last one was a little harsh).
Let’s start at the beginging shall we?
What am I adapting? Flannery O’Connor’s short story “The Lame Shall Enter First”, which is found in her collection of short stories entitled “Everything That Rises Must Converge”.
What are you adapting it into? A short play.
And here is the big question, why?
I have always loved the style of Flannery O’Connor. She has a way of writing that engulfs you into her stories; into her uses of metaphor, into her search for spirituality, morality, and ethics. This specific story “The Lame Shall Enter First” encompasses all of these things. This story centres around Sheppard, a man who is unable to sympathize with his son’s grief over the death of his mother a year ago, and so instead spends all his energy helping a juvenile delinquent, Rufus. To Sheppard helping the less fortunate is the purpose of life, and though Sheppard is an atheist, he is focused soley on his duty to “save” this young man from his doomed future. The story turns sour for Sheppard as we learn that Rufus does not want to be saved, and further more Rufus believes in a spiritual world where only Jesus can save him, not Sheppard. O’Connor brings up the all time struggle of science verses religion, and suggests that moral thinking begins with authentic compassion rather than a false sense of “doing good.” I was drawn to this theme of faith versus reason, as well as the three compelling and complex characters O’Connor has created. Also, I love theatre. The medium of theatre is one of the only ones (apart from a concert) where we are apart of a communal experience of people. The audience connects all together to experience one performance, and to, in essence, see ourselves on the stage. I believe theatre also has the power to make us empathetic to situations in which we wouldn’t normally feel empathy for. We experience the show with the actors on stage, we become the characters, and through this we get to understand a situation from another point of view. Theatre is different than sitting down and watching a movie, here we are seeing something happen instantaneously, in real life, and in real time. We have no medium or screen to separate us from the action, it becomes harder and harder to become detached. I’ve experienced show’s where I am literally holding my breath; I have become so encapsulated with the performance, so engulfed in it’s characters. I read “The Lame Shall Enter First” and I can see it on the stage. I can see the audience members holding their breath, expectantly waiting for the next line, waiting to see what will win out in the end, faith or reason, or maybe a mixture of both. I can feel our empathy rising for the characters we would most like to judge, and see the layout of how this haunting short story can be displayed in all its glory on the stage. All of this stirs in me an excitement for my work; a chance to show others what I can see so beautifully in my imagination.
Let’s get started.
