Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Staging Utopia

The argument can most definitely be made that More's Utopia is a work that can't be properly translated to a stage production. Just at a first glance, the narration and dialogue is somewhat long winded; the structure between Book 1 and Book 2 could make an incredibly awkward transition to stage; and last but certainly not least, the actual plot of Utopia (especially Book 2) wouldn't be desirable to any general audience. But, while it may not break any box office records, I think Utopia could be done on stage in a very innovative way that could really captivate an audience while staying true to the original work.
If there's one problem with transitioning Utopia to the stage it's the fact that it's in no way archetypal. There's no real antagonist, there's not really any emotional revelations that the characters go through, and when you really get down to it, it's just a few guys sitting around talking. Not to mention the fact that if it's narrated as it is in print, then the play would go on for about five hours. Just to put that in perspective, the extended edition of Return of the King was a little over four hours. So obviously, cuts would need to be made just to trim down on the time. However, there would really be no way to add any extra characters or drama without totally defacing the actual work itself.
But how exactly would you portray such a work? It was really never meant to be adapted to the stage to begin with. The first book is relatively straight forward and could be achieved with simple backgrounds and props. But, the second book would definitely be a bit more tricky. It could be set up so that the narration is continuing over live acting of the actual events being narrated. But, the narration moves so quickly from one thing to the next that it would be near impossible to use conventional stage productions to portray it all by using just actors and props.
The best and probably most appropriate way to portray the second book of More's Utopia is by using projections along with physical props and actors. People go to the theater to see actual theater, so the play would have to rely heavily on the actual actors and props as much as possible to depict the inhabitants of Utopia. But, this alone wouldn't be enough to truly captivate the audience. There's so much that is said during the narration that it would be impossible to portray it all at once with normal stage conventions. Using projectors to visually depict some of the more complex or unattainable moments while actors physically act out the scenes at the same time would be the best way to do justice to both the original work and the medium of theater at the same time.
Reading More's Utopia, is really like a taking a lucid journey to the island itself, where the audience not only sees this foreign civilization, but also experiences it at the same time. Watching Utopia on stage should be the same way.

2 comments:

  1. You bring up some good points. I also ruminated this week and found it nearly impossible to stage Utopia. I agree that it can be adapted, but it would lose a lot of the characteristics that make the work so important. This book might be better adapted to film than it is to the stage? For some reason I feel like a natural geographic-esque version of this book would work, but as you mentioned above it might be too long for audiences to endure.

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  2. After reading Volpone, I completely agree. I was trying to write a rumination about the stage, and found it impossible. Thanks for the thoughts!

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