A Tale of  Two Genres

    Charles Dickens, always a lover of theatre and an avid participant, conceived of his most popular novel, A Tale of Two Cities, while he was performing in a play about Arctic exploration. He had just finished reading a monumental account of the French Revolution. His head was teeming with the two influences: the isolation of the Arctic explorers in their colorless world, and the noisy, crowded anarchic world of Paris under siege. And Dickens was living in London, where he daily saw the very injustices that had inspired the French to revolt.
    The two cities would provide the setting for the narrative he was weaving in his mind, but the cold isolation of the North Pole would inspire the character of the lonely alcoholic Sydney Carton, who had to worship his beloved from afar. Dickens thought of  A Tale as "a story of incident." –Which explains its episodic nature. But he also called it "a picturesque story, rising in every chapter with characters true to nature, but whom the story itself should express, more than they should express themselves, by dialogue."
    Despite his jumbled grammar, Dickens clearly sought to emphasize action and setting rather than to rely on his usual interest in character. So we have a novel filled with mighty descriptions of the disintegration of a whole society (French) and comparable descriptions of a society perhaps in need of a similar re-configuring (British).
    From the time that the writing of A Tale began (first serial installment 30 April 1859), Dickens was itching to have the story dramatized. And when he finished (last installment 26 November 1859), he began looking for someone to adapt the novel for the stage. Dickens was so excited by the project that he is said to have inserted himself into the production, practically directing it himself. He even tampered with the adaptor's lines . . . to ill effect. Consider this: When Sydney Carton allows himself to be executed, his act is predicated on his love for Lucie Manette. Carton's speech before dying is one of literature's most poignant and Romantic statements, which the adaptor had kept: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

Dickens changed those lines in the play to "Farewell, Lucie! Farewell Life!"
    Such a change gives us ample evidence why we should never assume that novelists are their own best adaptors to stage or film or why we even might want to avoid an adaptation of a great novel in the first place. The latter issue is always a bone of contention between purists and translators (of language or genre).
    Adaptations are necessary. A stage version of A Tale of Two Cities gives in two hours or so the emotional experience that the novel gives in considerably more time. True, the novel is fuller, richer in detail. And, therefore, a play can never truly replace its antecedent. However, if the adaptation is true to the narrative and language of the original, it becomes, like good literary criticism, an insight into the novel itself. The play version becomes an important document in how we perceive Dickens' most popular work, having sold more than 200 million copies since the serial was gathered between one set of covers. The eternal nature of Sydney Carton's sacrifice is preserved in this play. The eternal sense of injustice and poverty and unrest is preserved here. And the profound truths enunciated at the novel's outset are here preserved as well. The novel, now a play, validates these opening words, which will always be true: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. Is it not always the season of Light for someone? Is it not always the season of Darkness for someone else?
    Look around. The play does what it has to do.

A theatrical production of A Tale of Two Cities may sound like an expensive proposition, but in fact this script was originally produced on a university campus in 1974 with a production budget of seventy-five dollars, and it wasn’t reader’s theatre.  This adaptation was conceived with a minimal budget in mind.  However, what’s important is, rather than stifling the development of the adaptation, that seeming restriction was an inspiration.

In the mid-eighteen hundreds, when Charles Dickens was writing A Tale of Two Cities, the English inns were experiencing hard times.  In an attempt to improve business inexpensively produced entertainments were presented in the innyards.  It should also be noted that Dickens’ novels were adapted for the stage even during his lifetime.  Therefore, it’s not inconceivable that, in an effort to turn a profit, innkeepers may have selected for one of their innyard productions the popular, recently serialized novel—A Tale of Two Cities.  Incidentally, the play could not have been set at the time of the French Revolution for Dickens wrote about those events from a distance.  “It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times…”) And so the environment of an English innyard in the mid-eighteen hundreds became the setting for this adaptation.  It was a theatrical and economical solution to the problem of literally representing the countless locations in this tale of London and Paris.  Actually, Dickens suggests this solution in the second chapter of the second book of his novel. 

“The Old Bailey (criminal court) was famous as a kind of deadly innyard from which pale travelers set out continually in carts and coaches on a violent passage into the other world.”

However the setting was not the only device inspired by the limited resources. 

Dickens’ story calls for a cast of thousands.  This adaptation can be produced with considerably less.  In order to effectively suggest the crowded galleries at the Old Bailey and at the French Tribunal the audience for the original production was seated on the balconies, stairs and lofts (with their legs dangling over the edge) within the innyard environment, just as their counterparts would have been seated in the 1860s.  However, it was the introduction of the four Innkeepers, who wisely chose A Tale of Two Cities for their innyard production, which significantly reduced the cast size requirement.  In their dual roles as the play’s narrators and directors, they also perform the parts of the story’s minor characters.  In addition, the Innkeepers/Narrators solved another dilemma faced by the adaptor which was to preserve as much of the novel’s narrative as possible.

I have experienced two productions of this play and I believe that the key to a successful production is to reinforce whenever possible the concept that the Narrators are innkeepers and the Innkeepers are storytellers and the play’s directors.  It’s not merely because they’re first to appear on stage that the four Innkeepers are listed at the top of the “Cast of Players.”  They are responsible for telling this story.  Everyone else, whether it’s a Peasant or the individual playing Sidney Carton, is assisting them in their effort.  They are friends, neighbors or aspiring thespians, who are anxious to help out.

Regarding the costume ‘design’ for this period play, the solution was a relatively simple one, when seen through the eyes of those Innkeepers. Without a budget for such things they no doubt would have approximated or suggested the ‘look’ of the period with clothing or portions of costumes, which they may have found in forgotten trunks or valises stored years earlier at the inn.  In 1974 the University theatre costume shop provided a fair assortment of eighteenth and nineteenth century costumes.  The absence of an apparent scheme to the costume design worked to our advantage.  If they all appeared to have been from exactly the same period, or they all fit exactly right or they appeared to have been designed as a whole, they may have had a jarring effect on the overall concept.

As for the unit setting, the Innkeepers no doubt would have had it a little easier than we did in 1974.  However with the use of existing platforms and wood planking removed from the side of a barn (with the barn owner’s permission, of course) the innyard with its balconies, stairs and passageways was effectively suggested.  Old wicker chairs discovered in the basement of a university building, which were positioned on the balconies, complimented the informal ‘loft’ seating described above.

When most people think of A Tale of Two Cities, they think of the storming of the Bastille.  But how could it be effectively yet economically presented on stage?  Two weeks before the original opening all that existed of the scene was a page of the text with the typed words “Storming of the Bastille.”  Blocking of the scene was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful warm spring day.  I moved rehearsal to a large grassy area on front campus.  As we headed outdoors we took with us a tarpaulin to approximate the indoor playing space.  Something happened once we were in the open-air.  Whether it was the smell of freshly cut grass or another sign that spring had arrived and the school year was almost over, we all began to dance and play and fall on the soft ground like children.  Soon the gray-green tarpaulin became the billowing tricolor flag of the revolution, and ring-around-rosey became the dance of the Revolution—the Farandole.  The product of that afternoon, which was documented by a passing staff photographer for the daily campus paper, became the Revolutionary scene as described in the text.

One final comment to directors of this play.  I cannot over emphasize the value of putting yourself in the position of the Innkeepers.  Ask yourself ‘How would they have done it?’  And keep in mind as you make your own choices during the rehearsal period, that no matter how minimal your budget is you probably have more to spend on your production that the Innkeepers had to spend on theirs.

From Mark Fitzgibbons:  "This NEIU productions is opening almost thirty-five years to  the day when the original was produced at Kent State University in Kent, OH.  It was published in 1986 after a successful professional premiere at the Cleveland Play House, in Cleveland, OH.  I had long since moved to New York so it was a coincidence that both premieres occurred in Ohio." 

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