Dublin is hosting a world premiere! And it’s not the latest offering from Marina Carr (hooray!) but something a little more Hollywood… A stage production of The Shawshank Redemption is opening at The Gaiety 19th May. In other exciting, showbiz news I got to have a chat with the director, Peter Sheridan.
The film version continues to be hailed by audiences and critics as one of the greatest films of all time, fifteen years after its initial release; it ranks number one on the Internet Movie Database of the top 250 films (below classics such as Citizen Kane and Casablanca). The pressure to emulate such success, and live up to an audience’s preconceptions, must be crippling but Sheridan is quietly confident that by going back to the original 1982 novella by Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the play can offer a different experience.
Sheridan won’t reveal the details but there are going to be aspects to the play that don’t feature in the film. I have my suspicions… Red’s (now indistinguishable from Morgan Freeman) fate is left open in the novella, which ends with him travelling to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, hoping to find Andy. In contrast, the film ends with Red and Andy meeting on the beach. Fingers-crossed Sheridan will reinstate the original ending which fits far better with the central theme of hope. After all, the novella’s subtitle is ‘Hope Springs Eternal’ and Red’s poignant concluding line is ‘I hope’.
Hope is not confined to the parameters of Red’s narration. Stephen King wrote the character of Red as a middle-aged Irishman with greying red hair (hence the joke when Freeman’s Red is asked how he got his nickname and his answer is ‘I’m Irish!’) but Frank Darabont’s casting of Morgan Freeman – in favour of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, both of whom were considered for the part – brought echoes of Nelson Mandela’s recent release after twenty-seven years in prison on Robben Island, as well as an excellent pun. Mandela’s campaigning for an end to the apartheid is paralleled in Red’s ability to reach out and unite the multi-racial population of Shawshank State Prison.
Rather than exploit Red’s Irish connections Sheridan, like Darabont, has chosen to foreground the theme of hope, with reference to 2009 politics. Shawshank is a metaphor for a punitive American system. Sheridan’s casting of actor Reg Cathey, best known for his role as Norman Wilson in The Wire, as Red deliberately seeks to echo the hope offered to this corrupt system under the leadership of the first black president.
The story may lend itself to political analogies but does it lend itself to the stage? Sheridan believes that in terms of unity of space and action the theatre is the where the story belongs. Who’s going to argue with Aristotle? Nevertheless, this certainly makes sense. Claustrophobia is the most important dynamic to the prison setting. I can envision no artistic realisation in which the intensity of this location could be better conveyed than within the physical limitations of the stage.
No wonder Sheridan is un-phased. By now he must be something of an expert in prison dramas. He has done The Shawshank Redemption in reverse with Borstal Boy, which he transferred from stage to screen. Being familiar with the strengths of both mediums he is quick to spot the disadvantage to Shawshank’s theatrical incarnation. This is the difficulty in getting actors to age on stage. Brad Pitt managed the ageing process particularly well in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button through a combination of modern prosthetics and ground-breaking computer techniques but Sheridan and his crew’s only resource is old-fashioned make-up. Admittedly, they have only to manage the crow’s feet and frown lines of twenty years, as opposed to Pitt’s crippling eighty, but Sheridan acknowledges that it’s a hurdle that has yet to be overcome.
‘Technical difficulties’ aside, the tone of The Shawshank Redemption would seem to have a lot more scope for Sheridan to unleash his flair for sentimentality. The overriding criticism of Sheridan’s film adaption of Borstal Boy was his penchant for putting a poignant, nostalgic spin on what is essentially a hard-hitting story about a teenage hell-raiser. I agree. But I for one would feel cheated if The Shawshank Redemption didn’t allow for a few tear-jerking moments.
I don’t think those who bring their tissues along will be disappointed. Music is a sure-fire way to heighten the emotional impact and Sheridan will not be passing over any opportunities to indulge in one of his greatest enthusiasms. The scene in the film in which Andy Dufresne plays Mozart’s ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ over the prison’s loudspeaker system is one of the most memorable but unfortunately it is copyrighted to the film. However, Sheridan’s highly inventive twist on this is, in itself, a reason to go and see the play. Some of the prisoners form a band and the music that fills the penitentiary will be do it yourself, made on domestic items such as washboards and brooms.
The stage adaption of The Shawshank Redemption really does promise to have something for everyone. If theatre, film or music is your thing there is no reason not to enjoy a little pre or post exam treat. For those who find laughing best relieves the tension, there may even by a few jokes from the scriptwriters and part time stand-up comics Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns.