Posted by David Meadway on January 11, 2008 at 02:59:14 from 89.204.252.229 user davidm.
In Reply to: Re: Proposed New S&A Film posted by Peter Ceresole on January 08, 2008 at 17:09:16:
To me opera, light opera or musicals depend on highly dramatised plots and easily recognisable, stereotypical characters. The S & A books are the inverse. Taking the earlier plots in isolation not a lot happens: some children go on holiday, play out their fantasies (without going too far), overcome some (realistic) problems, and at the end go back to the same lives as they were leading before. The books’ appeal is in their characterization, with which we can identify, and that they encounter things that could have realistically happened in our own lives, and that they don’t change overmuch as a result. Compare and contrast with, for instance, the Harry Potter series where stereotyped but amusing characters face up to and are changed by very unrealistic but dramatic plots; which are just about consistent and interesting enough to make me read through the whole series - once. The S & A books I have re-read every few years since the early 1960s.
The later S & A books – particularly PM - are more dramatic in terms of character development, and the clashes they induce, but for me these only work from knowing the characters from the earlier books. I do not think the stories work very well alone, and I imagine that the drama is not brash enough for contemporary tastes in either musicals or films.
The non-real trio – PD, ML and GN – obviously have more dramatic plots, but the characters reaction remains decent, practical and decidedly downbeat. EG they make far more fuss about sinking Swallow in SD, with minor collateral damage, than of the attempted murder and subsequent shooting of one of their number in PD. To me, these novels use the same plotting style and character reactions as the Lakeland books, except in these books the fantasies purport to be real.
I am generalising perhaps, but the books do not contain enough high drama to justify an opera/musical, without the anathema of exaggerating the characters and plot, to the point that they are no longer recognisable. The alternatives I can see are to:
- Conflate the escapism of the original books with events elsewhere –the characters’ subsequent lives during the 2nd World War for instance. This worked superbly with Goodbye to Berlin/Cabaret.
- Develop a counter-fiction from one of the novels – eg BS from George Owdon’s,or PM from the GA’s point of view. This worked well, but not musically, with Wind in the Willows/Wildwood (Jan Needle).
- Go art-house: place adults in the children’s roles, and contrast this with their real lives/real world. This worked interestingly with Blue Remembered Hills (Dennis Potter) or Nuts in May (Mike Leigh).
Any of the above might work, but the greater dramatic interest will be in the additional material. The charm and appeal of the original books will take second place. The developments may be good in themselves, and they may generate interest in the original books, but they will not enhance them.
However, I suggest a much better candidate: Racundra’s First Cruise – the Musical. Here there is the advantage of a true story where three strong characters are confined to a small boat, in a decidedly edgy world situation, and with opportunities for flashbacks to the genuine, recognisable and very dramatic events which brought them there. Moreover filming would be in a cheaper location, and quite a lot of the original infrastructure is presumably still in place.