Adapting a short story by Andrey Platonov to the stage.
What is it about?
An account by a contemporary British playwright of the particular challenges involved in adapting a Russian short story for the stage - and its premiere in Voronezh, Russia in 2019. Why this story, by this writer? Why now? What happens to prose fiction as it is wrestled into drama - and what can be learned from the experience?
Why is it important?
Adaptation - or the rebirth of stories across multiple media - is a huge factor in contemporary art. The writer in this case - Andrey Platonov - was barely published in his own lifetime, having fallen foul of Stalin and his government's doctrine of Socialist Realism - the duty to write not about the present and all its privations, but about the glorious future made possible by the Russian Revolution. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Platonov's work has gradually become known in the west, where he has been compared with such literary greats as Kafka and Beckett - a silenced voice, now resonating.