Staging Utopia would be like asking a band of thespians to act out a dream you dreamt the night before. The problem is in perspective. “Utopia” was written completely in Sir Thomas More’s point of view of a perfect society, and attempting to stage one person’s complete viewpoint is an impossible request to fulfill.
Actors are usually given roles of characters which they then adapt to and make their own. They undoubtedly keep the writer and director’s personality of the character at forefront, but tweak it in such a way to personalize it and lose themselves in the part. The problem with staging “Utopia” is that they would not be able to do this. The actors would have to completely act in Sir Thomas More’s perception. The only way for this to truly happen would be if “Utopia” was an animated movie voiced in the exact way he prefers, Sir Thomas More plays every character role, or he is simply a puppeteer. Without being done in these ways, the original view of Sir Thomas More would be lost in the modified perspectives of the actors.
Another major conflict would be plot. Although Sir Thomas More describes various aspects of “Utopia” there is no one story that it is centered around. If a screenplay was to be adapted to his writings, a plot would have to manifest. One way this could happen would be if the storyline followed a single family living their daily lives in “Utopia.” Another possibility would be someone who grew up in “Utopia” but questioned its’ differences between the mainland, or vice versa: someone who escapes from the mainland and somehow manages to cross the obstacles on his journey and reach “Utopia.” Either way; however, making a plot out of Sir Thomas More’s writings run the risk of changing or tweaking his perspective, and if this happens it truly isn’t his “Utopia” anymore.
The key point is that “Utopia” can undeniably me made into a play or screenplay, but it would no longer be Sir Thomas More’s personal views of a perfect society. His original ideas would be lost in the adaptations of other writers and directors amends. There is no possible way that the original “Utopia” could fully be transferred onto stage unless Sir Thomas More was still existing, and planned to make the entire script himself as well as act it out or voice it. If these things are not done then it is not his “Utopia” anymore, and who is to say that anything besides his exact words is still, in his mind, a perfect society?
Such an interesting rumination! One would immediately think that it would be somewhat easy and systematic to recreate this piece of literature into a play. However, there is a lot more thought that goes into this. Without Sir Thomas More's essence in the play, it would be a different story, not his.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about creating Utopia as a play, but your rumination made a good point. I agree, that it would not be the same as Sir Thomas More wrote it. Directors and actors always put their own style and twist on things to make the story more theatrical and I do not think More would appreciate his work being changed. The story of Utopia is universal and one that is familiar to all for being the "perfect society story". If one were to act it out, everything would be different and no longer have the same affect.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that in making Utopia as a play much of what made Utopia an interesting story would be lost. Also, if we consider that every person's view of a Utopia is different, much of the audience might feel like an outsider while watching it. The toughest part for making such a thing interesting, besides trying to keep More's views in the work, would be to make it as neutral as possible so as many people as possible could understand and appreciate it. Unfortunately, in doing so More's views would again be lost, creating quite a conundrum.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that "Utopia" in the way that it was written by Sir More would be a difficult task to make into a modern play or screenplay. However, I think the way to make it possible would be an interpretive version of what the play is about. I believe that par of More's reason for making "Utopia" was to create argument and debate into what the "ideal culture" should look like. The director of a modern version of the play could make the play based on his own arguments about society, or on his assumptions of what he believed More to be saying in the story. I think that both of these versions would be entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI like that in your rumination, while saying that the play would need to focus on one central figure, you plotted it out and proposed various methods that I wouldn't have thought of in order to make this actually work. I've been thinking though - what if the play was a sort of ... documentary? I mean, we have documentary TV shows, the nature/history channel, etc. What if there was a play documentary? That would solve the "plot" problem, and possibly be for an either very interesting, or extremely boring evening. Great post!
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