Faithful to the original: Adapting something that goes against your beliefs

When I was writing The Love of Three Oranges, I kept coming to moments in the writing process when I would hit a cross-roads between staying closer to the original text and playwright’s intent or to the play I was writing. Was I writing a faithful scholarly adaptation or a comedy for modern audiences based on something old? It was something I really struggled with and, most times, I opted to stay true to Gozzi even when it was at the expense of the adaptation as a standalone play out of the historical context. Because I was writing it as part of a school project, I genuinely didn’t know any better and thought that was what I HAD to do with an adaptation. 

So I kept scenes in that I knew were boring and preachy because they were in the original, things like that. And this is not me saying that what I wrote is in any way better than Gozzi’s version because, to use an apt cliché, we’re comparing apples to oranges. I was writing a play for today (or 2002 in my case) and he was writing a play for his time and things change, particularly with audience tastes.

What I’ve noticed is that, as I do revisions to the show now, years later, (such as when I made some changes before Playscripts published it and writing the one-act version) I’m apt to decide in the exact opposite way. I have much less of a problem now with cutting things out or reworking scenes that don’t work for a modern audience. If I were to write Three Oranges today, it would be a completely different show and, maybe, better for it.

Which brings us to The Green Bird. One of the biggest things that made me abandon the idea of adapting it back in 2002 was that I was still in that mindset that I had to stay as true as possible to the original to adapt it and, well, I don’t actually like a lot of The Green Bird. Don’t get me wrong, I love the world of it, the magic, the story itself but it’s the themes that were the problem for me. Specifically, much of the play is an extended metaphor bashing the Enlightenment movement, which really doesn’t translate to a contemporary audience. Secondly, there is a second, underlying, theme of misogyny that doesn’t really appear in Three Oranges but really comes to the forefront with Gozzi’s later plays (and Green Bird was his second to last one) and some really disturbing views on class, particularly on the poor. (There are some members of the current GOP that would love this guy. Carlo Gozzi would be their 2016 nominee for sure.)

I had no problem adapting Three Oranges because I felt that, overall, I was still being true to his original project and just sprucing it up to keep it alive into the future. I shared the views he was presenting in that play and I was just finding a new way to express them. But I just couldn’t get on board with his “Women are just The Worst!” and “F- poor people. Why aren’t they just rich?” themes.

When I was in high school, I played Julie Jordan in Carousel. Domestic violence is a big theme in that play and it’s portrayed so awfully I don’t understand how any high school can justify putting it on anymore. In particular, there was this line I had where my daughter is reminding me that my (now dead) husband used to beat me and I had this awful line about how sometimes a slap “could feel like a kiss.” I was like, “I am NOT saying this.” and the director told me I had to. In the end, I said the line like I was supposed to but it made me want to vomit that I was being used as a vessel to put such a screwed up thought into the world. It would be one thing if the play itself ultimately disproved the line and I was a straw-woman but it wasn’t like that at all, it legitimately glorified and approved that violence and, as the moral center of the show, I was the one driving that point home.

The idea of trying to do a faithful adaptation of The Green Bird felt like that to me. I’d have to take Gozzi’s views that were unpalatable to me and not only have to say them myself with my words but give them to hundreds of kids to spread in productions? No thanks. If I had to stick closely to the original and those awful themes, I wasn’t doing it. So I abandoned the project.

But time has passed. And perhaps it’s the wisdom of age or maybe just arrogance but my decision to return to The Green Bird after all comes from a very simple revelation I had: I could change it.

I was excited. Isn’t this what adaptation is all about? Taking something and transforming it into something new? Weaving the familiar elements of the original into a new tapestry?

I was terrified. Will scholars cry foul because I’ve mucked with a classic? Will boxers get all in knots because I’ve girlied up a historical text?

I go back and forth between these two state of mind daily but it’s in the background because, once I gave myself permission to change things, the whole play came alive for me. I can take it apart and remake the whole thing into a show that I would want to be a part of, something that would be a fitting companion piece to the celebration of fun that is Three Oranges. I can take this play that’s been relegated to the theatre and opera snob demographic and give it back to the commoners. And however else I twist his themes, that comedy should be celebrated and his plays be for the average person is something I know for sure Gozzi is with me on.