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From the other side of the world, words to enchant children
I'm sitting at home in Hobart, Tasmania, 11,000 miles from Wendy Harris, artistic director of Leeds-based Tutti Frutti productions. Another considerable distance from us both are Peter Stamm and Jutta Bauer, the German writer and illustrator of a children's book called When We Lived in Uncle's Hat.
It's a testament to the modern-day pleasures of international collaboration that the English director engaged in discussion with the German creators, employed an Australian playwright, and is soon to premiere it back in her locality, at the play's co-producer York Theatre Royal. The true wonder of the entire process is that – from this antipodean perspective at least – it has all unfolded seamlessly.
Two years ago, I was in England working with Wendy on a play called If Only The Lonely Were Home. On a day off, she took me to see the inspiring Yorkshire Sculpture Park and while walking between giant mesh rabbits and Goldsworthyan rock formations (surely the correct landscape for all business dealings), she offered me the task of adapting a beautiful German book for the stage, pending approval from its creators. One day, when I was back in Australia, it arrived in the post.
When We Lived in Uncle's Hat follows a multigenerational family as they move from place to place, trying to find a home. Their locations are not generic, however, as they spend time living on the moon, in a cinema, on a bus, nowhere… In their words and images, Peter and Jutta have created environments that feel as full of potential as the Sculpture Garden I'd stood in previously. By tracking the travellers in this way, the child reading is offered two introductions: they learn about these brilliant worlds, each with their own possibilities; and they learn about a family.
I'll shift focus now, to say that it's precisely because of these types of narratives that I write for children. There's a true liberation in the breadth of topics that one may put in front of a young audience (they will eat up magical realism, the far-fetched, the outright impossible). But – like all the best liberations – there are some rules.
Children will go with you on these adventures, so long as each new world created has legitimacy. And in this I mean that they expect certain standards – three-dimensional characters, suitable emotional stakes, the possibility of things not going right, and the prospect of redemption.
It's a misconception to think that children can't deal with, or don't need, meaty material to tuck into, and all the best stories for children (The Jungle Book, Tom Sawyer, Roald Dahl's Matilda) understand this. Their characters may be talking animals or have magical
powers, but their hopes and traumas are real and children can appreciate this.
So too with When We Lived in Uncle's Hat. The book feels so special because we really care about this family. They are not just on the moon or in a forest – they are sad on the moon, they are in love in the forest. And I felt it was one of my most important tasks in bringing this book to the stage, to bring that emotional truth with it.
The process of adaptation is an amorphous thing that varies from job to job. I've written lots of original works, but I've also adapted some: a Brecht play, a Mozart opera, two children's books. The odd correlation is that all these works were written in German – as they are all commissions given to me by various directors whom I have never met, I don't know why this is (maybe the surname), but for some reason the pattern continues.
Different writers adapt in different ways, all with the central intention (hopefully) of honouring the original text. I don't believe, however, that this calls for a mere shifting of form, with the book's words reformatted as dialogue for actors.
As I am a writer, and the original author is a writer, I'd rather the story become a conversation between us, so the same themes and ideas pass from one voice to the other, but the language itself grows into what it may – with this adaptation, only a handful of original lines have been used, but the sentiment is what carries.
Leeds-based theatre group Tutti Frutti make inspiring work for children, and it's been a pleasure to send words across the world with the knowledge that they will land safely. And the ultimate delight is to know that when I go to bed tonight, Wendy and the wonderful team of performers will wake and take to the stage, adding song and sensitivity and pathos and joy. And soon after they will become the travelling family (both fictitiously and literally), presenting When We Lived in Uncle's Hat to children around the country.
When We Lived in Uncle's Hat is at York Theatre Royal until October 16. Tickets: 01904 623568, www.yorktheatre royal.co.uk and at the Ilkley Literature Festival on October 17. Box Office 01943 816714, www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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