Frontline Drama 4: Emma; Great Expectations; The Mill on the Floss; The Life and Times of Fanny Hill

Description

Showing the process of adapting classics, this text brings together four stage and film adaptations which demonstrate how contemporary dramatists have transformed well-known novels. The four novels are Jane Austen's "Persuasion" adapted by Nick Dear, Charles Dicken's "Great Expectations" adapted by John Clifford, Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" adapted by Michael Fry, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" adapted by Phyllis Nagy.

April De Angelis is a British dramatist who began her career as an actress with the Monstrous Regiment theatre company in 1987. She began writing plays in 1987 and her work includes Jumpy, Breathless, Women in Law, Wanderlust, Visitants, Ironmistress, Crux, Frankenstein, The Life and Times of Fanny Hill, Hush, Greed, Soft Vengeance, Playhouse Creatures, The Positive Hour, A Warwickshire Testimony, A Laughing Matter, Headstrong, Wild East, Catch, and Wuthering Heights. Charles Dickens (1812-70) was an English writer, generally considered to be the greatest novelist of the Victorian period and responsible for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters. He continues to be one of the best-known and most read of English authors, with multiple adaptations of his work frequently being produced. Mary Anne Evans (1819-1880), who wrote under the pseudonym George Eliot, was a leading English novelist, journalist and translator. She wrote seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda. Helen Edmundson is a British playwright, who has made a mark primarily for her adaptations of various literary classics for the stage, including The Mill on the Floss, Anna Karenina, Orestes, Blood and Light, Gone to Earth, and War and Peace. In addition to adaptations, Helen Edmundson's original stage work includes Flying, The Clearing (winner of the John Whiting Award for Best New Play), and Mother Teresa is Dead. Jo (formerly John) Clifford is the author of over 70 works in every dramatic medium. Her work has been translated into many languages and has been performed all over the world. Her plays include Everyone (Royal Lyceum Theatre), An Apple a Day (Oran Mor/Traverse Theatre), Losing Venice, Playing with Fire, Ines de Castro, Light in the Village (all for Traverse Theatre), Tchaikovsky and the Queen of Spades and Charles Dickens (both for Pitlochry Festival Theatre). Also for the stage, Jo has adapted Faust Parts 1 and 2 and Anna Karenina (both for the Royal Lyceum Theatre), Great Expectations (TAG), La Vie de Boheme and Wuthering Heights and has translated Schism in England, Life is a Dream, Celestina, The House of Bernarda Alba and Bintou. For radio, Jo has written Spam Fritters, Writing home to Mother, Madeleine and Ain't it Great to be Bloomin' Well Dead and has adapted Baltasar and Blimunda. Most recently Jo's play The Tree of Knowledge was produced at the Traverse Theatre and her short play, Sex, Chips and the Holy Ghost was produced at Oran Mor. Jo lives in Edinburgh and is a former Professor of Theatre at Queen Margaret University. For further information on Jo and her work, visit www.teatrodomundo.com Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist whose works are among the most popular novels ever written. Her keen eye for social tension, and ear for taut, witty dialogue have delighted readers for centuries, while her novels have maintained historical importance through their analysis of the dependence of women on marriage to gain social standing and security. She has been widely adapted for both stage and screen, and continues to be among the most widely-read of late-18th-/early 19th-century writers. Michael Fry's previous adaptations include Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which has now been performed in over fifty productions throughout Britain and worldwide, and highly acclaimed stage versions of Emma and The Great Gatsby. His numerous directing credits include, most recently, the Lyric Hammersmith, the King's Head and the Gate.