It simply means that the production feels preachy and those choosing to attend a performance need to be prepared for that. That does not mean it is less than successful. This adaptation by the Fellowship for Performing arts is both pedantic and proselytizing. For example, “The Great Divorce” as a novel is not necessarily pedantic or proselytizing in nature. Readers of rich text know the author has established a setting which includes mood and the readers connect to text on many levels and are free to interpret what they read in a variety of ways. Lewis’s novel the adaptors have given to their production now running at the Pearl Theatre Company. The difficulty arises in the specific interpretation of C. Lewis’s novel “The Great Divorce” for the stage. Max McLean and Brian Watkins succeed in all of these aspects in their adaptation of C. The adaptor also has to delineate the characters with honesty and believability and present their conflicts and the plot they drive with the authenticity inherent in the original text. The adaptor needs to be as true as possible to the original dense text – especially in the case of C. Adapting a novel for the stage comes with considerable risk.
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