Adaptation

Mr Carmen

Carmen pursuit becomes game of theatrical graffiti in stunning adaptation

Try as she might, Bizet’s Carmen can never throw off her determined suitor, Don José. Wherever she runs, he follows, unshakeable in his affections. Don José is the stalker par excellence. In the hands of AKHE: Engineering Theatre, this relentless…

The Cherry Orchard

What’s immediately striking about John Byrne’s bold new adaptation of Chekhov’s swansong is how sympathetically it translates to its new setting – the north-east of Scotland on the eve of Mrs Thatcher’s first election victory in 1979 – with very little…

Best of a decade: Film

Dogville, Che, Fish Tank, The Son, Hidden, 14 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Death of Mr Lazarescu, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Adaptation

The Grapes of Wrath

Steinbeck's classic back on an Edinburgh stage

The relevance of John Steinbeck’s 1939 tale of the Joad family’s enforced odyssey across America in search of work and a place to settle following eviction from their farm is grimly evident in a world of foreclosures and chronic unemployment. Yet in…

Heart of darkness

His Dark Materials

Three novels, hundreds of characters and numerous parallel worlds – Philip Pullman’s imagination knows no bounds. Between them, Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass have captivated millions of readers worldwide. Fitting their…

Synecdoche, New York: Crisis of faith

‘How many roads must a man walk down / before you call him a man?’ Is Bob Dylan’s most famous protest song really a surrealist riddle? What’s the road made out of, and will it hurt the tender soles of my feet? That’s the thing about the Jewish…

After Mary Rose

Collaborating with director Nicholas Bone of Magnetic North, playwright D Jones has given JM Barrie’s 1920 ghost story Mary Rose a dust down so it has less of the creaky haunted house about it and more of the privations of war. But in structure and…

Sakuran

MANGA ADAPTATION A bit like Edinburgh’s number 30 bus, Mika Ninagawa’s adaptation of this noted Manga comic series by Moyoco Anno travels an epic, seemingly endless journey, but goes nowhere interesting on the way. The scenery is better though, with…

Little Dorritt

(U) 380min Released to coincide with the BBC transmission of Andrew Bleak House Davies’ new adaptation of Dickens’ great political novel, Christine Edzard’s low-budget 1987 beauty is an intimate six-hour epic split in two halves. The first focuses…

Four Men and a Poker Game

ADAPTATION Today, news on the financial crisis is ever-present: it’s on our TV screens, our radios, and now it’s even on our stages. Later this month, the Tron will host a new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s little-known short story, ‘Four Men and a…

Something Wicked This Way Comes

When Gill Robertson first set out to put Ray Bradbury’s 1962 novel on the stage, her main concern was doing the book justice. In reality, if anything, she puts it in the shade. The standard of this co-production between Catherine Wheels and the National…

Sunset Song

ADAPTATION It was some time in the early-60s when His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, last produced a play of its own, barring the annual pantomime. To return to the fray with a ten-strong company and a mainstage tour after so long was ambitious but…

Antigone in New York

ADAPTATION GilmorehillG12, Glasgow, Fri 27–Sun 29 Jun Known for finding inspiration in outdoor spaces, Theatre Found will transform Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park into Central Park for a production of Janusz Glowacki’s Antigone in New York as part of the…

The Sound of My Voice

ADAPTATION Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Jun Most people live a life torn between the conformities of consumerism and some more primal urge for happiness, yet we only really notice this schism when a person goes off the rails. One such…

A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle

ADAPTATION Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 21–Sat 26 Apr Grappling with questions of Scottish identity, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is acknowledged as Hugh MacDiarmid’s finest work, and an integral part of the modern Scottish Renaissance movement. Now…

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ADAPTATION (12A) 123min Robert Luketic’s unfaithful adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing Down the House: The Inside story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas For Millions can’t decide whether it’s high stakes or high school. In real life a…

Vanity Fair

ADAPTATION Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 12 Apr Anyone watching the difficulties of our formerly all powerful financial sector over the last few months could not fail to be struck by some echoes in this production at the Lyceum. If you’re…

Vanity Fair

Sitting at a pub table surrounded by actors can be intimidating. Yet, the assembled cast of Tony Cownie’s upcoming production of Declan Donnellan’s adaptation of Vanity Fair are able to put this journalist at ease by dint of the sheer enthusiasm they…

The Other Boleyn Girl

ADAPTATION/ROMANCE (12A) 114min This clumsily abridged adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s bestselling historical novel fills in the ‘hidden history’ of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne, the second of Henry VIII’s six wives. According to this take on the 16th…

Great Expectations

ADAPTATION Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 15 & Sat 16 Feb; Paisley Arts Centre, Thu 21 Feb; MacRobert, Stirling, Tue 26 Feb Much of Charles Dickens’ most successful work draws on his own life experiences. Strange, then, that perhaps his most…

Resurrection

ADAPTATION Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 11–Sat 16 Feb Whether it’s your carbon footprint or choice of chicken, it seems the individual’s responsibility for the choices they make are under more scrutiny now than ever. But Resurrection, playwright Nicola…

Great Expectations

ADAPTATION The Byre Theatre, St Andrews, Thu 31 Jan–Sat 9 Feb, then touring ‘What is it that makes a person? How possible is it to escape your past? Are you trapped by it or does it give you a platform from which to move forward?’ These are the…

The Golden Compass - Heart of Darkness

Everyone wanted Nicole Kidman to play Mrs Coulter. From the makers of the blockbuster film adaptation of The Golden Compass through the millions of fans of Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials to the author of the novels…

The Golden Compass

FANTASY/ADAPTATION (12A) 105min JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and JK Rowling may have all the initials and most of the sales but fair-minded fantasy fans know deep down that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is the genre’s true shining light.

Atonement

There’s a visually astounding set-piece at the centre of this adaptation of novelist Ian McEwan’s superb tragic romance set before, during and after World War II. It’s a lengthy tracking shot of the beach at Dunkirk during the Allied troop withdrawal…