The art of adaptation

Adapting an existing property for the stage is a tightrope walk between slavishness and loyalty, as the creators of new adaptations are finding out.
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Orlando Ransom & Saskia Haluszkiewicz in Black Swan’s The Red Balloon. Image by Robert Frith Acorn Photo.

When adapting an existing work for the stage, theatre-makers face a perennial challenge: to honour the original text to such a degree that their production risks becoming constrained and slavish, or to play fast and loose with the source material and risk alienating, even offending those who hold the original works close to their hearts.  

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts