Strangers on a Train

While theatrical adaptations of novels are less common than cinematic ones, the fiction of Patricia Highsmith appears to possess a remarkably long stage life.

Feature by Marcie Hume | 14 Aug 2006
Adaptations are everywhere in a time when producers attempt to replicate the popularity of one project in the medium of another, with the ultimate aim of building on the monetary wealth that was initially generated. The lucrative nature of such efforts can be seen in films-from-novels such as 'The Da Vinci Code' or the Harry Potter films. But, apart from these high-profile ventures, many films are adapted from narrative fiction as often as they are scripted from scratch, commonly in an attempt to secure success.

Theatrical adaptations of novels are less common, perhaps because the commercial opportunities are not a driving force in most theatre productions. Not many producers have accumulated great wealth from theatrical ventures alone.

But, however rarely, these stage adaptations do occur; a theatrical reworking of Irvine Welsh's 'Trainspotting' played to packed houses just as the novel and film were gaining colossal status. The whole 'Trainspotting' ruckus was noted as being a marketing phenomenon, while also presenting a story with intricacies that are elucidated in distinctive ways by the various forms it has taken.

This month, a stage adaptation of the well-known Patricia Highsmith novel 'Strangers on a Train' will be presented at Glasgow's Theatre Royal. But this is only one of many treatments the story has received: the book was made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951, and another film adaptation is tentatively due to be released this year (although the press surrounding the project has included headlines such as "Hollywood is running out of ideas").

Highsmith is also responsible for 'The Talented Mr. Ripley', the 1999 film adaptation of which was directed by Anthony Minghella. A theatrical version of Ripley would certainly seem absurd, and a little over the line of hyper-adaptation: for starters, who would play Gwyneth Paltrow's character, and wouldn't that be an insufferable task? But sure enough, a dramatic modification of the book has been performed in recent years - an adaptation which was fairly commended for maintaining the grittiness of the original novel.

But why is there any need for a theatrical adaptation of a story that seems to have been well covered? Where would we draw the line: at a contemporary painting series, or 'Ripley The Musical' perhaps? Maybe it is more important to ask if, as a society, we even have a threshold for this kind of enduring re-hashing.
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 21-26 August 2006.