Authors Intentions

Tolkein of course denied that LOTR was an allegory until his dying day. It grew out of a challenge between him and Lewis Carroll that resulted from Carrolls point of view in the Narnia books and the Out of the Silent Planet trilogy. Oh and despite having read it three times I still don't know Finnegans Wake is really about. But anyway. As a playwright I have very clear intentions as do, I feel, most of us. I believe we tend to be more direct than novelists and perhaps cloak our meaning less than a novelist does. I realise I have quite stridently defended the fact that the authors intent should be paramount but I do also feel that any production must as Craig says be a collaborative effort. Any Director and actor will want to be a creative part of the process, where I differ from some people is where that creativity strays too far from the original text. When back story development leaves the original message of the script coughing and spluttering in the dust then the authors intent is often lost. Leaving Beckett alone now i will move to Pinter. I have seen recent productions of "The Homecoming" that reduce the play to a comedy. I use the word reduce deliberately. Some of the play is funny, but it is a very black humour intended to bring the sheer horror of most of the characters into a sharp focus. If you turn it into a farce then it becomes ... well a farce and loses much of its horror. Lets face it guys, without the playwright where are you, of course equally, without the Director and actors where are you and most of all without an audience where are all of us. Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing. www.tonymoore.id.au