Part 1: Adapting books for the screen and stage

Player Kings: Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts 1 & 2

This is the first of a four-part series about adapting manuscripts for the screen and stage.

Start with what you know!

The play’s the thing
I had the privilege to see Ian McKellen (Falstaff), Toheeb Jimoh (Hal) and Richard Coyle (King Henry IV) in Player Kings at the New Wimbledon Theatre. on 2 March 2024. It’s a mash-up of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2.
 
McKellen stole every scene he was in and brought all the comedy. He mumbled and grumbled, but got a laugh every time he did. Jimoh and Coyle brought excellent performances – Hal was sufficiently lacking in direction as a young man with a view to his future; Henry was woefully marching forward while dragging an unhappy child along for the ride.
 
While the first half of the play was phenomenal, the entire second half of the play seems … not to fit the story at all? It leaves theater-goers scratching their heads.  How do the characters sitting in the orchard have anything to do with either Falstaff changing his ways or Hal leaving behind his naughty lifestyle to embrace his role as heir to the throne?
 
These questions made me wonder about the process of adapting texts for the screen or stage. I’ve done it myself a few times, without any prior experience or education.
 
It’s time to remedy that! This year the theme of the Historical Novel Society Conference 2024 is From the Author’s Page to Screen and Stage.  I’m digging into the best practices for adaptation, so I can help authors looking to adapt their book into a screenplay.

Where to start?
First, I’m comparing and contrasting stage and screen adaptations of stories I know well. This helps me think more critically about what works well on stage but also where the potential pitfalls may lie. This brings me to Player Kings.
 
Shakespeare’s history plays (which were historical fiction in his day!) cover a time period and historical events I know fairly well. Since I don’t have to focus on plot, motivation, goals or stakes, I can concentrate on what keeps me, an audience member, riveted and engaged (or – gasp – bored).
 
What Player Kings got right in the first half was the focus on character. The audience enjoyed following Hal and Falstaff around Eastcheap, watching their mischief. They play off each other nicely, the opposition of their characters makes for instant drama, but also comedy.
 
The enjoyment dissolved during the second half, as the characters went their separate ways. This diversion is one pitfall that lost the audience. I’m curious, if instead of adapting Henry IV, Part 2, Player Kings could have adapted the first few scenes of Henry V to finish off the play.
 
The play’s rushed ending, which – after nearly four hours – treated the audience unfairly. They’d given up their evening to see this and wouldn’t have minded lingering longer at the several deaths that influence Hal for the rest of his life.
 
Stay focused
Character relationships and goals should always be the focus of a story that’s on the stage or screen. This play lost the focus of the strained relationships between Hal and Falstaff, and between Hal and his father.
 
Be picky when it comes to choosing what scenes to keep and which to toss. If I were critiquing this script, I’d say, ‘Connect the dots! Focus on the characters!’
 
Don’t focus, as this production did, on a nice piece of setting/scenery. (Think an apple orchard hanging down from above.)
 
Praise is due to this production. Yes, the hanging orchard was nice, but not at the cost of the story. Otherwise, I enjoyed the set design – rooms were created by fun twists and pulls of the curtains. The music was far too loud, and McKellen’s grumbles were sometimes hard to hear: was that on purpose?
 
The reason it’s ‘easy’ for me to focus on the pitfalls is because I wasn’t trying to figure out what was going on, and if you’re an author hoping to start adapting script, start by working with stories you already know well that have adaptations.
 
In my next post, I’ll share the helpful tips I learned from the pros.