Classic adaptations

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Q. Whose are the most adapted works

A. Shakespeare comes in for the most stick, because he is the biggest literary institution and it is a great way of poking fun at the established theatre.

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The greatest British exponents of the craft are the Reduced Shakespeare Company who are just about to take their huge West End hit The Complete Works of Shakespeare�(abridged) on a nationwide tour of small venues. This is all 37 plays performed in 97 minutes by the famous tights and trainers troupe, complete with cookery show, rap and American football versions of some�of the best known plays. They also perform Hamlet backwards in one and� a half minutes. For tour dates go to www.reduced-shakespeare.co.uk

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Q.Is it a British phenomenon

A. No. in America, where Shakespeare is currently huge, there are several Shakespeare touring companies and dedicated Shakespeare theatres, which tend to do adaptations, rather than straight plays RSC-style. Peter Brook's Hamlet currently performing in Seattle's Mercer Arena has only eight characters. And The Donkey Show aka A Midsumer Night's Dream - The Disco Mix is at New York's Club El Flamingo, complete with strobe lighting, glitter ball and hits such as You Sexy Thing and Ring My Bell.

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Q. Adapting classical theatre to a modern setting is a recent phenomenon, isn't it

A. No. Romeo and Juliet was what the musical West Side Story was based on. It's been going on for years.

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Q. Is it done just to make theatre more popular

A. Partly. It is asumed that if the work is familiar, even if the treatment is not, then it's already an audience catcher.

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Shakespeare is adapted a lot in the States to make the bard's work more digestible. For example, every week the Chicago Shakespeare Company puts on a play in just 75 minutes and then encourages discussion amongst the audience afterwards.

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Q. You can't do it with ballet, can you

A. Yep. The Royal Ballet performed an acclaimed version of Swan Lake in which all the cygnets were men. They wore big feathery jodhpurs instead of tutus. If you have seen the film Billy Elliot, this is the production which is�shown at the end.

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Q. Is opera safe from adaptation

A. Jonathan Miller's production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte at The English National Opera had all the female members of the cast in gorgeous pastel coloured Armani suits and the guys in soldiers uniforms. The songs were the same, though.

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Q. Where are the best adaptations now

A. At Cardiff's Sherman Theatre there is Macbeth set in the present, The Taming of the Shrew set in Elizabethan times, and As You Like It performed as a Noel Coward play. Telephone 029 2064 6900 for details.

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Coming up in London in April (18-22) is Umabatha (Macbeth) performed in Zulu, complete with forty foot-stomping, spear-waving warriors. It charts the assassination of the great Shaka Zulu by anti-hero Macbeth. It is at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, telephone 020 7401 9919.

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Further afield, in Sydney Australia's Bell Theatre, is Shakespeare's R and J, an adaptation of Romeo, and Juliet in which four Catholic schoolboys, banned by their puritanical teachers from studying the bard put on their own version of the classic love story.

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Back in the UK Rent is now on tour after its West End run. It is based on Puccini's opera La Boheme. Amongst many other tour dates it is at the Theatre Royal Newcastle from 17-21 April, telephone 0191 232 0997.

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by Nicola Shepherd