Pagecraft: turning your book into a play

I remember as a kid my dad carefully built the sandcastle of all sandcastles. It was impressively intricate, with winding ramps and stairs, turrets and windows. 

About 20 minutes later, a child’s foot came hurtling past, knocking half of the castle away, stairs crumbling into nothing as if they never even existed.

There simply wasn’t enough room on that busy Newquay beach in the middle of the surf festival for something so elaborate. Similarly, there isn’t enough room, or for that matter, money, to bring every aspect of a book to life for the stage…

When my husband and I received Arts Council funding and a Live Theatre Bursary to turn my novel, The Twenty Seven Club, into a play, this was one of the first lessons I learnt – and it’s a tough one to accept when, as an author, you’re used to having no limitations on your storytelling.

Theatre, however, is a whole different ball game, and I discovered early in the process that the entire supporting cast of characters in my novel, each and every one precious to me, was never destined to tread the boards in a stage play. 

As tough as it felt at the very beginning of the project, I’ve since discovered so much joy in the re-construction of my story – even if I did have to wave goodbye to some fictional friends and hand over the pen to my husband, Chris Connel, who is both writing the script and directing the play.

Chris and I met at Hull Truck Theatre back in 2003. I was a press officer, he was the cute Geordie who was regularly cast in the theatre’s shows. Long story short: we snogged at the Christmas party, ended up living together in Newcastle, his home town, and eventually we got married.

But my experience in theatre has always been on the business side rather than the creative side. So although I had a bit of a dream to see my novel turned into a stage play, I knew I couldn’t do it alone. I knew it needed someone who really got how theatre works and who understood the tricks and techniques we could use to bring a story to life in this way.

My characters and my world have been expanded, with fresh eyes and ideas, and that’s something that really makes you feel as though they’ve got a life of their own

When the funding came through, although we worked together on plotting out the story, deciding which characters would be needed to tell it and ensuring that the core message was inherent, I had to step back. I had to let go of my world and place it in somebody’s else’s hands…

Now you might think that, because the script writer is my husband, that it made it easier—but it probably makes things even harder. Regardless, we are still happily married and the play is still going ahead. I’d call that a triumph!

So I wanted to share three key things that I learnt along the way…

When it comes to characters, you have to say some goodbyes

The main character in my book is Emma. And her partner in crime is her lifelong best mate, Dave. However, one of my favourite characters, Doreen (a quirky, tough-nut of a 70-something who I fell in love with the minute I imagined her) didn’t have a place in the stage play. Although she appeared in the book as much as Tel, Emma’s dad, her role wasn’t as integral to the core story. It’s about family and childhood and friendship—and so, in addition to Dave, the character we most needed was Tel (and we certainly couldn’t afford more than three actors!) Emma’s love interest also disappeared, but this was quite an obvious choice. Again, to explore childhood and friendship, Dave was key. Sex and romance, unfortunately, were pretty much redundant.

The plot remained, but the synopsis has to change

I knew that Emma had to get from A to B, learning X and Y along the way, but how she got there was another matter entirely. Firstly, it was apparent that it wouldn’t be practical to bring all the settings in my story to life on the stage. I had the park, the pub, Emma’s house, Tel’s house, a gig, a club, the office…this had to be pared right back. And because of this, the scenes needed to change. So while some of my original dialogue is there, some of the scenes are entirely brand new. But in some ways this was quite magical—because my characters and my world have been expanded, with fresh eyes and ideas, and that’s something that really makes you feel as though they’ve got a life of their own.

Theatre is a highly creative medium

We might have a cast of just three, but Chris, who himself has performed in numerous productions that require actors to multi-role ("Bouncers" by John Godber being one of the classics), has introduced a host of incidental characters to really set the scene. This relies on some incredible acting skills and physicality, but it’s a fascinating and really clever technique to watch and I can’t wait to see it in our production. Having worked at Hull Truck Theatre when playwright John Godber was at the helm, I’ve seen this done many, many times, and it’s an absolute delight.

So while you have to give up some of your characters and it might feel at first as though your fictional world is shrinking, I’ve found that in many ways it’s having more life breathed into it with new scenes and a whole new way of experiencing the story.

I haven’t seen the end result yet, but the process to date has been fascinating and a real learning curve. So I’d urge any writers who would love to explore different mediums to link up with a theatre practitioner and see what funding’s out there. Your story might no longer be exclusively yours, but isn’t that the whole point of storytelling anyway? 

"The Twenty Seven Club" is being performed at Live Theatre, Newcastle, for four nights in March as part of its Elevator Festival. To book tickets, visit www.live.org.uk.