Sunday 17th March 2013 by Will Langdale
We take a brief peek at the author’s relationship with stage and screen
“You may ask why I didn’t do the dramatization myself. The answer is simply that sometimes I have been too busy and at other times I have been too idle. And anyway, I couldn’t possible have done as skilful a job”
-Roald Dahl, 1976
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| Roald Dahl photographed by Carl Van Vechten |
Roald Dahl’s relationship with the theatre has historically not been particularly close. Dahl briefly toyed with writing screenplays, including adaptations of Ian Fleming’s Bond novel You Only Live Twice (1967), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and although Dahl’s influence can be seen, both scripts were completed by other writers. One of the most memorably terrifying characters – the Child Catcher – was actually created by Dahl and didn’t appear in Fleming’s novel at all. Yet Dahl’s characters have often fared well on film – Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) has become iconic, and more modern adaptations include the Danny DeVito-directed Matilda (1996), the animated musical James and Giant Peach (1996) and Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
The history of Dahl’s books on stage begins much earlier. In 1975 Richard George, a schoolteacher from Charlotte Cross Elementary School in upstate New York, wrote to Roald Dahl with a dramatisation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory he’d written for his students. When Puffin published the play, and subsequently James and the Giant Peach (1982), Dahl received many other adaptations from budding teacher-writers, but it wasn’t until 1985 that Sally Reid’s Fantastic Mr Fox received the Dahl seal of approval.
Since Dahl’s death in 1990, there have been several further adaptations of Dahl’s most popular stories to be performed by children. David Wood, the noted children’s dramatist, has written several, including The BFG (1993), The Witches (2001) and The Twits (2003), with forewords from Felicity Dahl, Roald’s widow. Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity has also commissioned orchestral works based on Roald’s Revolting Rhymes (1982) which have been turned into musicals for children to perform since 1992.
In 2010 the Royal Shakespeare Company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, commissioned Matilda the Musical for its winter season. By 2011 the production was secured for a West End transfer and opened at the Cambridge Theatre on November 22nd. Both productions garnered excellent reviews, with particular praise for Bertie Carvel’s Miss Trunchbull and Tim Minchin’s music.
Now in 2013, the Sam Mendes-directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical is just months away from opening at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane! Dahl’s writing seems to lend itself well to adaptation to stage or screen for a number of reasons. His use of grotesque, over-the-top characters affords actors a wide range of tools to play with, so that sinister threat can be contrasted with whimsical caricature, as is the case with the various Miss Trunchbulls and Willy Wonkas. The tendency to make a good-natured yet oppressed character the protagonist makes them both easy to identify with (who doesn’t believe they’re basically good?), and their goals easy to root for. Lastly, unfair treatment by figures of power is something that resonates with everyone, regardless of age, wealth or status.
This combination, along with Dahl’s uniquely black sense of humour, is what’s exciting about the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and we really can’t wait to see it! If you’re thinking about booking a package to see the show, we’re offering 5% off all packages booked before the end of March. Simply put your ideal break together then enter CHARLIEBLOG as a voucher code to get your discount.