Miévillians discussion

Chris has written a play based on TC&TC, which is about to open in Chicago in February.

See Chris' blog here:

http://www.christophermwalsh.com/blog...

Post suggested interview questions for Chris here.

1) Obviously, the most basic question, which Ian has already asked in one form, is how do you manage to put characters on the stage whose presence is noticed, but who can't be "seen" (or if the audience can see them, how is it clear that the characters can't)?

2) Language: we've been discussing the language, of which Borlú's informant says "it's the same damn-faced language". How have you made Besź and Illitan both "the same" and different?

Would you like me to answer these as they come, or did you want to compile some sort of official list of questions first?

I was hoping to compile and order a list my today before I go to the beach, if you don't hear from me within 24 hours, feel free to start answering.

Christopher, given the short time I have suggested, I haven't had many responses yet.

I have compiled a number of questions based on what I've been supplied so far, plus the sort of discussion that has featured in the threads.

Would you feel comfortable answering these questions (plus using them as a launchpad for any points you'd like to make) and dealing with any questions that come in after my post or in response to your answers?

1) Traveller:

What obstacles did you encounter in the adaptation of this novel to a play format?

2) Derek:

Obviously, the most basic question, which Ian has already asked in one form, is how do you manage to put characters on the stage whose presence is noticed, but who can't be "seen" (or if the audience can see them, how is it clear that the characters can't)?

3) Ian:

Similarly, how do you portray the difference between the two cities physically? Total, alter and crosshatching. What guidance did you give the director and the set designers in your play? Did you suggest colour and/or lighting? Do you have a feel for how much of the action is indoors or outdoors?

4) Derek:

Language: we've been discussing the language, of which Borlú's informant says "it's the same damn-faced language". How have you made Besź and Illitan both "the same" and different?

5) Ian:

The dialogue in the novel seems to be sparse. Did you have to create much new dialogue for the play? Did you have to use dialogue to "explain" concepts?

6) Ian:

We as readers occasionally felt disoriented during the slow release of information and explanations. Did you "assume" that the audience would already "know" something about the cities and withhold information strategically until later? Did you try to create a sense of disorientation or did you try to avoid it? Why?

7) Ian:

How did you build the character of Corwi? Did you need to flesh out her role or dialogue? Did you develop a sexual tension between Borlu and Corwi? Does the actress playing Corwi match China's description of her? Is she hot? (Sorry, I just checked the cast photos, and she is.)

8) Ian:

How did you deal with past events and characters like Mahalia and Yolanda? Did you use flashback?

9) Ian:

Was there much opportunity to introduce humour into the play? (You seem like a pretty funny guy for a playwright.)

10) Ian:

Did your experience with the Rogue 8 live-action comic book series attract you to or help you to appreciate China's fiction?

Hi everybody! Thanks for inviting me to participate in your discussion, and thanks for these questions.

1) Traveller: What obstacles did you encounter in the adaptation of this novel to a play format?

Most of the challenges in TC&TC were the same as on any other adaptation. The novel takes a little over 10 hours to read out loud (based on the run time of the audio book). I need to find a way to tell the story in about 2 hours. After the first draft, I have to start considering the technical and budgetary constraints of the theater producing the play. We have a small performance space. We can only hire so many actors. The goal is to remain true to the spirit of the story, while conceding that certain aspects will have to alter. Subplots will get cut. Characters will get cut or combined with other characters. Most of the time I really enjoy this part of the process, but there was one character that it pained me to lose. It had to be done though.

Beyond that, a lot of the challenges were more technical issues than script. One of the first shows I acted in with Lifeline Theatre was an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I'm sure many of you here are familiar with that book and that author. The story calls for giant beasts and endless chasms and stuff like that. I had to laugh the first time I read the script, and the stage direction just said, "They walk out over an endless chasm." I then realized that there are some problems the adaptor doesn't need to solve. He just needs to find a director who is willing to solve it for him.

2) Derek: Obviously, the most basic question, which Ian has already asked in one form, is how do you manage to put characters on the stage whose presence is noticed, but who can't be "seen" (or if the audience can see them, how is it clear that the characters can't)?

This is a prime example of the "technical" rather than "script" problem. During the writing process I had a vague idea in my head of shadows appearing on the walls, or back-lit onto screens, or something like that. In my stage directions, during street scenes in crosshatched areas I refer to "traffic" and "shadow-traffic." My director and designers took it from there. As the adaptor I need to be able to give the designers an idea of what to do, without telling them how to do it. They will always have a better idea. The final effect will involve lighting certain areas of the stage while keep other areas in partial shadow. I say "partial" because we still want to inform the audience that there are people there, without giving them too much to draw focus. We also have a movement designer, who mapped out intricate traffic patterns that the citizens of each city follow. We also explored the posture and physicality of each city's inhabitants. The book gives hints that they move differently; we ran a series of rehearsals to explore how and why.

3) Ian: Similarly, how do you portray the difference between the two cities physically? Total, alter and crosshatching. What guidance did you give the director and the set designers in your play? Did you suggest colour and/or lighting? Do you have a feel for how much of the action is indoors or outdoors?

For the most part we followed the book's guidelines on the physical feel of each city. We gave Beszel a darker, worn feeling, using high-contrast lighting effects and dark costumes. Ul Qoma, by contrast, has brighter lighting and more colorful costumes. While we did talk about the idea that, in reality, light from Ul Qoma shines on places in Beszel, we chose see things through Borlu's eyes. When he is seeing Beszel, he is only seeing Beszel, and vice versa. This allowed us to set certain parameters for the audience: When we are seeing Beszel, it looks like this, and Ul Qoma looks like that. Then, in those moments when Borlu does see into the other city, we can blend the two effects. We hint at it early on, when Borlu sees the woman on the street near the crime scene, and then exploit it full-on once he meets up with Ashil and Breach.

4) Derek: Language: we've been discussing the language, of which Borlú's informant says "it's the same damn-faced language". How have you made Besz and Illitan both "the same" and different?

This was tricky. A lot of the finer details of the languages ended up getting cut from the adaptation. It's fascinating stuff, but slows things down when you've only got 2 hours to tell the story. I came up with a couple of devices to address the language issue, but I won't really know if they work until we have an audience with people who don't already know the book. Mostly, it involves the cunning use of accents. Most of the time, when our native Besz or Illitan speakers are speaking those languages, the actors do not use an accent. However, on those occasions when those characters start speaking English, the actors then put on an accent. We have a dialect coach who helped us create a specific accent for the show, based on Croatian. This happens, for example, when Mr. and Mrs. Geary show up, and Borlu and Corwi speak English with them. My subtle nod to the idea of Besz and Illitan being essentially the same comes from the fact that while the characters insist they are different (as when Dhatt says to Borlu, "Your Illitan is better than my Besz"), their accents when speaking English are the same.

5) Ian: The dialogue in the novel seems to be sparse. Did you have to create much new dialogue for the play? Did you have to use dialogue to "explain" concepts?

I did end up writing a lot of original dialogue. To keep with the noir feel of the book, I also included a lot of direct-address, with Borlu speaking directly to the audience. The first couple drafts had WAY TOO MUCH of it; through the rehearsal process I've been slowly paring it down. There is also a lot of interesting information in the book's first-person narration that worked better as part of a scene. For example, in the book, Borlu (in narration) tells a story of seeing Breach when he witnessed a car accident as a child. I was able to use this passage as a way for Borlu to explain the idea of Breach to the Gearys.

6) Ian: We as readers occasionally felt disoriented during the slow release of information and explanations. Did you "assume" that the audience would already "know" something about the cities and withhold information strategically until later? Did you try to create a sense of disorientation or did you try to avoid it? Why?

My very first goal, when I first pitched the idea of adapting TC&TC to the company, was to recreate for the audience the same sensations I felt when I read the book for the first time. I vividly recall thinking while reading the early chapters that I completely understood what was going on, and then slowly discovering that not only was my idea completely wrong, but that the truth was far weirder than the generic fantasy plot I'd concocted in my head.

That said, a theatre audience does not have the luxury of flipping back a few pages to see if they missed something. So there are a few details about the rules of the world that I tried to make clear from the beginning. It's not fair to the audience to expect them to come in already understanding the rules, but it would ruin the experience if we just explained it all at the beginning.

7) Ian: How did you build the character of Corwi? Did you need to flesh out her role or dialogue? Did you develop a sexual tension between Borlu and Corwi? Does the actress playing Corwi match China's description of her? Is she hot? (Sorry, I just checked the cast photos, and she is.)

With Corwi, the character trait I latched onto was her toughness. She's certainly one of the most vivid characters in the book, and required little embellishing on my part. I actually had to scale back on everybody else's F-bombs to make sure her's stood out more. I purposely avoided laying on any sort of sexual tension between her and Borlu. A key character trait of Borlu's, and central to the story I wanted to tell, is his loneliness. He has no real relationships. Even his girlfriends barely rate. ("They didn't know about each other, but neither would have minded.") It's this loneliness (combined with his first-rate investigative skills) that makes him an ideal recruit for Breach.

8) Ian: How did you deal with past events and characters like Mahalia and Yolanda? Did you use flashback?

I did not make use of flashbacks. Mahalia never appears onstage (except as a body under a sheet). The audience discovers past events the same way Borlu does, by learning about them from the people he talks to throughout his investigation.

9) Ian: Was there much opportunity to introduce humour into the play? (You seem like a pretty funny guy for a playwright.)

There are some funny moments, but obviously I did not set out to turn it into a comedy. Corwi is inherently funny, and we've discovered through rehearsals that Dhatt is actually pretty hilarious as well. The actor playing him brought to the table this idea of Dhatt being extraordinarily condescending. His exchanges with Aikam are particularly entertaining. And it's always fun when he and Yolanda meet for the first time and his first words to her are, "Pain in my ass."

10) Ian: Did your experience with the Rogue 8 live-action comic book series attract you to or help you to appreciate China's fiction?

I would say that my general fondness for speculative fiction and other nerdly endeavors attracted me to both projects. (The Rogue 8 series, by the way, was written by a stand-up comic named Dan Telfer. If you like jokes about dinosaurs and the slave dwarf that lived under Tycho Brahe's table, I highly recommend you check him out.)

If you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer them. Thanks again!

Hi, Christopher, I've been plagued by cyclones and floods on my supposed beach holiday (didn't get anywhere near salt water), while Southern Australia has been burning.

I'm really grateful for your detailed responses and your professionalism, insight, grace and humor.

I suspect that you will get some more feedback as stragglers catch up with the reading schedule.

In the meantime, we wish you good luck for the production and the season (or should that be break a leg?).

Please stay in touch and let us know what audience and critical reaction you get.

Christopher wrote: "Hi everybody! Thanks for inviting me to participate in your discussion, and thanks for these questions.

1) Traveller: What obstacles did you encounter in the adaptation of this novel to a play for..."

Thanks for your wonderful reply, Christopher! Apologies that we've been a bit tardy in replying, i guess Goodreaders are pretty busy at the moment with non-GR goodies?

Well, re the obstacles. Interesting, yes--in many ways the obstacles are similar to that of film (depth and scope vs time available), but in many ways film also has the advantage (it seems to me?) over theater, in that filmmakers can "cheat" more easily with visual effects, and also, filmmakers have the advantage of being able to edit their footage afterwards, as well as being able to play around with camera work, such as long shots, close-ups, panning shots, etc, and also of being able to 'suggest' bigger spaces, etc.

So, filmography focuses a LOT on visual aspects, whereas with theater one obviously has to make do with a more or less static arena in which your drama plays out in.

Traveller wrote: "Interesting, yes--in many ways the obstacles are similar to that of film (depth and scope vs time available), but in many ways film also has the advantage..."

I don't know if "advantage" is the right word. Film offers a very different set of tools, but they are neither better nor worse; they are meant to create a completely different product. Film techniques offer a wider palette of visual options, but is restricted by the static nature of film - it will always be the same film every time you play it.

Plays have a comparatively limited range of technical options, at least as far as visual effects go, but the spectacle of the theatrical experience is intended to be secondary to two specific qualities that make plays unique: They are immersive (the audience and performers are in the same room together, creating a shared experience) and they are fluid (the amount of variables involved to make a single performance happen guarantees that no two performances will be exactly the same).

I know that probably sounds like a pretentious artsy-fartsy response, but I've worked enough in both media to tell you that the differences far outweigh the similarities.

(And don't get me wrong: I would LOVE to see a film version of TC&TC, or any of China Mieville's books.)

What you say is true. In a way, film is 'dead' compared to theatre as far as interaction between audience and cast is concerned, isn't it? As a member of the audience, it always feels a lot more 'special' to attend the theatre, and of course, a film crew does not get the direct applause (or boos or laughter) that a theatre cast does.

..and thanks for the insight that theater is fluid and also unique in every appearance--i had actually not thought of that before. :)

Thanks for your insights, Christopher. From my strictly amateur perspective as an audience member, it rings very true. There are all sorts of things that work on stage but not on film, and vice versa.

On a (slightly) related note, I went to an Ansel Adams exhibition yesterday and learned that he was nearly a concert pianist, and saw many analogies with music and photography. In particular, he likened the negative (it was pre-digital) to a musical score and the print to a performance (he would print several different versions). Theatre has a similar uniqueness, I think.

Wonderful post, Cecily. I'v always seen each individual performance as ephemeral. Digital recording and bootlegs (of concerts) allow us to perpetuate the ephemeral. Which might or might not be a good idea.