Theatre, Adaptation and Change Debated at the Italian Theatre Festival

In between the last two shows of the Italian Theatre Festival, poet and novelist Ben Okri, critic and author Emanuele Trevi, and writer Gilles Affray gathered in the basement bar of The Print Room at the Coronet to discuss words and theatre.

Chaired by Marco Delogu, President of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, the conversation spanned from the role of adaptation and respect towards the original authors to the nature of the art.

The dimly lit room came alive when Okri said how essential it is to have an affinity to the writer he's reshaping. He likes to assemble the work in trilogies, which Camus did too: for the late writer it was drama, prose, and philosophy, while for Okri it comes down to poetry, prose, and drama.

"There's a sense of ritual to the interpretation of Camus," Okri explains, and tells the story of how he met Camus' wife to ask if the Arab in L'Étranger could speak in the version he's adapting for The Print Room. He didn't dwell on the fact, but she didn't accept the changes.

When confronted by an older, white (specifying this seems important) woman from the audience in regards to why he thought he had to make the change to such an important piece of literature, he eloquently and elegantly explained that times have changed and we live in a world where all people deserve a voice.

Especially in 2018, it would be essential to let a character like the Arab - who's never had a say in the history of Camus' story - speak. She refuted that, arguing it would have been too drastic a change and would have deviated what Camus wanted to achieve.

"The sacredness of the work is always challenged," Okri pointed out, and Trevi chipped in, saying that Samuel Beckett disappeared from the heart of performing arts for a number of years because he'd given orders in his will not to change anything from his opus. That "suicide of a theatre piece" removed him from the stage, said Trevi - "he froze the work and didn't make it interesting anymore".

Okri and Trevi then joked that when something like that happens, you only need to wait until it becomes public domain and do what you want - which is eventually going to happen to Camus and his L'Étranger too.

Trevi shone a light on how adaptations bring a living organism into a territory that's not its own by nature. It's important to look for the storyteller and the narrating voice when we speak of theatre, rather than an actual plot, he said - it's all the different voices on stage that ultimately make the narration possible.

He pinpointed the instance when he realised how peculiar and changeable plays are - as opposed to novels or films - as when he got a glimpse of Peter Brook reprimanding Vittorio Mezzogiorno in the wings during a performance.

They all agreed that theatre is never a complete entity, and Aufray turned our attention towards the relationship between the writer and the actor. It's the latter who completes a play in front of and with the public: "In theatre, you entrust someone with what you've written instead of leaving it at the side of the road, like we say in France".

Okri pitched in, saying that the writer-actor relationship is indeed essential. As the wordsmith, he surely needs to trust the director, but also listen to the actor - as some lines that are perfect and beautiful on paper cannot be said by all actors.

They concluded by recognising that adapting a piece of literature for the theatre means making a whole new identity; by turning a novel into a play or a film using every single word in it, you can desecrate the work just as much, if not more, than if you were to tweak and adjust bits - because they're two entirely different means of expression.

Okri and Aufray also concurred that adapting is similar to translating in that you're not doing anything wrong to the original - as it will always exist in parallel to the adaptation.

The three men breached nationalities and borders to prove how universal theatre is. The dynamism and permutability of the craft, as well as the fact that theatre poses questions about real life, are key, and it's by joining people together that it truly helps them find a common voice and leads to a ubiquitous yet extremely personal experience.