Inspiration

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Where does inspiration come from? Three of our Summer Theatre Season performances have been reincarnated, re-imagined or adapted. This only goes to prove that a good story can be powerfully delivered in several mediums and that story telling at its very best inspires others to retell it.

Poster from the 1957 film version of the story

12 Angry Men was broadcast originally as television play in 1954 written by Reginald Rose and was then adapted for the stage in 1955. In 1957 it became an Academy Award nominated film starring Henry Ford. In the 1990s version, Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott co-starred in an acclaimed adaptation presented by Showtime. Most recently, 12 Angry Men was reinvented into a Russian film simply titled 12. (The Russian jurors determine the fate of a Chechen boy, framed for a crime he did not commit).

Same film, in Spanish

Same film again, this time in German

Russian film version "12"

Little Shop of Horrors started as a low-budget horror film (released in 1960) written by Charles Griffith and Roger Corman. They wrote the script in ten days, lifting the plot from their previous horror-comedy called A Bucket of Blood.

Movie poster from Bucket of Blood

Jack Nicholson as Wilbur Force

Working fast with very little money, they shot the film over the course of a few days and nights. After its release in 1965, The Little Shop of Horrors became a cult classic and a popular midnight movie. A young Jack Nicholson played the role of Wilbur Force in the film – a role that didn’t make it into the musical.

A teenaged Howard Ashman, like so many fans of the Corman cult classic, came upon the film accidentally and never forgot it. He found himself imagining it as a theatrical piece. Years later, he began devising a monster movie for the stage about a carnivorous plant that brings fame then doom to its creator. He caught Corman's film on television around the same time and realized where his inspiration had come from. Together with Alan Menken, Ashman obtained the rights to the film and set about writing a stage adaptation. Like the original, the play is a satire of science fiction B-movies with a lot of tongue-in-cheek humour. Ashman’s adaptation takes on a more serious and emotional tone. The doo-wop style and early Motown music was introduced to a yet another generation in the 1986 movie remake. Audiences once again fell for this cult classic, featuring a star studded cast including: Rick Moranis, John Candy, James Belushi, Bill Murray and Steve Martin.

Image from the 1986 movie remake

The Melville Boys was originally penned as a book and published in 1986. It would later become Foster's signature play, and the one which would bring his name to the forefront of Canadian theatre. The play has been produced across Canada and in the United States, including a well-received run off-Broadway in New York.