Theatrical Adaptation

10-6-06 #5

After this weekend’s productions of Lovers, I believe that the environment of every performance can entirely affect the way the story is told. Any minute changes in detail can alter the story to the audience; and even the audience itself is a large factor. Adaptations don’t only take place between different versions of a story, they also happen from each time you read the book or every time it is performed. I noticed there were several differences in each night’s performance that an audience member may not notice, but still differences enough to affect the performance itself.

From night to night, lines were slightly altered, words changed, phrases, or even whole lines rearranged, there weren’t any major points left out, but things varied from night to night, affecting the information someone could receive and how it is processed. One example that sticks out in my mind is every night the dialogue between Joe and Mag after her false pains where she is talking about how hungry she is. Every night it was a little bit different, some nights, all the lines got rearranged one night, certain lines got left out and others were repeated. For each time, the audience was presented with different facts, for example the night I said “No breakfast!” as the reason before saying “Hunger pangs, that’s what it was” the audience is focusing on a different aspect that when those two lines were switched. They can take an entirely different focus out of where the line is coming from. The same thing with goes with the monologues that got rearranged from night to night; the order things are given changes the focal point of the information and what the audience remembers.

Also, each performance varied from the reactions given by each of the different audiences. Thursday night was a good night, we had a good, responsive audience that we were able to feed off of and make the show more energetic and believable. Friday and Saturday nights had an even more interactive audience, oohing when Joe insulted Mag and called her stupid or laughing at every slightly funny thing; they inspired a greater energy and encouraged more drastic reactions. While Saturday afternoon had a very dead audience. There was little reaction to feed off of and long pauses that looked suspicious while we really were just waiting for laughter. It was hard to feed off the dead audience and it was harder to wake them up and impress them with our story. So the energy of the actors and the encouragement to become more angry or happy or sad or excited about something partially depends on the audience and allows for a different representation of what the character is trying to convey.

Every production allows for an entirely different interpretation depending on the different factors that influence the performance. The way things end up occurring, like lines out of order or certain things skipped or even the enthusiasm of an audience can entirely affect the way a show is perceived from performance to performance. Each different show can have a different point of emphasis and each audience member can take a different message from the different ways every performance is adapted.

Ann Nelson

posted by Ann @ 4:22 PM