Drama into Film: The Shaffer Situation

Drama into Film: The Shaffer Situation C.l. GIANAKARIS Close observers of theatre hardly can be faulted for their curiosity, if not downright concern, when a significant work for the stage is adapted for the movie screen. Transplanting plays to film always has been chancy, with rather more misses than hits. One can point to exceptions, of course, such as movies made of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tennessee Williams's Streetcar Named Desire, John Osborne's The Entertainer, Harold Pinter's Betrayal, Anthony Shaffer's Sleuth, Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, and a handful of others. But even in these instances, the acclaim typically is critical rather than popular in the commercial sense. 1 While one lists successes such as these, one also must be conscious of the far greater number of disappointing movie adaptations made from hit dramas. Nor, incidentally, is the general situation much different with novels on the screen. Possibly the more amorphous shapes of fiction permit the novel to be "massaged" more readily to fit requirements of the film medium. That capacity would help to explain why movies based on novels have proved aesthetically satisfying with greater frequency. The success ratio of fiction into film therefore stands arguably higher than that ofdrama.2 The irony is unavoidable, then, that despite obvious affinities of dialogue, scenic structure, and the rest, drama ends up more resistant than fiction to the format of motion pictures.3 Why are dramas so difficult to transfer happily to the silver screen? What unique hurdles stand before a screenwriter when adapting a proven stage vehicle for the movies? Ifthe conceptual essence is cored out in a film version, why would (or should) a successful writer submit his creations to commercial moviemakers? Or, stated differently, what aesthetic compensations make it worthwhile for a distinguished author to relinquish his work to Hollywood? These questions form the general subject of our discussion. The larger issue of interconnected cinematic aesthetics and techniques admittedly invites abstract theorizing, a problem we hope to avert by tightening C.J. GIANAKAR1S our focus to a single major writer and his situation. As case in point, we shall center our attention on the plays of Peter Shaffer. More explicitly, Amadeus will serve as our chief illustration among Shaffer's plays, because it recently was adapted into a high-budget motion picture under the guidance of Academy-Award-winning director Milos Forman. Our concentration on the Shaffer situation should permit us, through a process of induction, to reach answers to some of the broader questions posed above. Further, focusing on Shaffer allows us rich examples with which to work. First, Shaffer already has distinguished himself as one of the premium playwrights of our day. Accordingly, on an auxiliary level, a consideration ofhis works as films should shed valuable light on his stage techniques as well. Second, his case is potentially rewarding because so many of his hit dramas have been chosen by film producers for conversion to the movie theatre, thereby providing multiple illustrations for reference. Third, it is especially worthwhile for purposes of comparison that Shaffer himself was the adapter for two of his recent plays refashioned as films. Changes in one form from the other obviously can be very informative within logistical and aesthetic perspectives. Finally, and most thought-provoking, the Shaffer situation offers an opportunity to observe firsthand potential pitfalls in the adapting of literary triumphs for the screen. Most ofthe movies made ofShaffer's plays have fallen far short of the popUlarity - and excellence - of his original pieces. To illustrate, the roster of Shaffer's works turned into motion pictures is long and distinguished. It includes Five Finger Exercise (movie, 1962), The RoyalHunt ofthe Sun (movie, 1968), The Private Ear and The Public Eye (movies, 1972), Equus (movie, 1977), and now Amadeus (movie, 1984). Nor have the casts assigned to these films lacked for talented stars, among them Rosalind Russell, Jack Hawkins, Maximillian Schell, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Richard Burton, Peter Firth, and F. Murray Abraham. To baffle casual speculation further, whereas the earlier movie scripts were written by different screenwriters, both Equus and Amadeus were adapted as screenplays by Shaffer himself. We...