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Adaptation, Action, Response: ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’ at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Ian Craven
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Abstract

Several of the novels of the Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibanez (1867–1928) have provided the basis for theatrical adaptations: but the version of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1916) by Peter Granger-Taylor, staged in March 1990 at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, was the first for sixty years. In the following feature, Ian Craven, who teaches in the Department of Theatre, Film, and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow, provides a full account of Jon Pope's production, considering questions of adaptation, performance, and response, and also paying special attention to the influence of the screen versions of 1921 and 1962. His analysis is complemented by extracts from an interview with the adapter and director. A study by Margaret Eddershaw of Philip Prowse's production of Brecht's Mother Courage, in which Glenda Jackson took the title role during the same season at the Citizens, appeared in NTQ28 (November 1991).

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 8 , Issue 31 , August 1992 , pp. 203 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

Notes and References

1. Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis (Valencia: Prometeo, 1919); first published in English as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (London: Constable, 1921). A five-act dramatization was produced by Linares Beccera, and first published in Barcelona (Casa Editorial Maucci, 1927). Beccera also adapted La Tierra de Todos (1927) in the same series. Always aware of new possibilities for the commercial exploitation of his work, Ibanez himself adapted several of his novels for the Spanish stage in later life.

2. Biographical summaries are provided in Brenan, Gerald, The Literature of the Spanish People (Harmonds-worth: Peregrine, 1963), p. 368–71Google Scholar; Northrup, George Tyler, An Introduction to Spanish Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925), p. 378–80Google Scholar; Kelly, James Fitz-Maurice, A New History of Spanish Literature (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), p. 480–2Google Scholar; Ward, Phillip, The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 66–7Google Scholar; Stamm, James R., A Short History of Spanish Literature (New York: New York University Press, 1979), p. 156–7Google Scholar. Critical judgement of Blasco's writing on the evidence of these texts has remained equivocal, and if anything he occupies an increasingly marginal place in revisionist literary histories.

3. Foreword to Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis, p. 10.

4. Day, A. Grove and Knowlton, E., Vicente Blasco Ibanez (New York: Twayne, 1962), p. 9–16Google Scholar.

5. Foreword to Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis, p. 8.

6. On the ‘ontology’ debates between theatre and film, see Nicoll, Allardyce, Film and Theatre (London: Harrap, 1936), p. 38–61Google Scholar; Manvell, Roger, Theatre and Film (London: Associated University Press, 1979), p. 15–58Google Scholar.

7. See Richardson, Robert, Literature and Film (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969), p. 1–34Google Scholar. On adaptation to television, see Kerr, Paul: ‘Classic Serials: To Be Continued’, Screen, XXIII, No. 1 (05–06 1982), p. 6–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. The 1921 version was produced by Metro Studios, and the 1962 version by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). The earlier film triggered a flurry of productions based on novels by Ibanez. Subsequent Hollywood screen adaptations of his works include Blood and Sand (Paramount, 1922 and 1941), The Torrent (MGM, 1925), The Temptress (MGM, 1926), and Mare Nostrum (MGM, 1926).

9. A valuable reconstruction of the principal debates around the politics of adaptation is provided in Giddings, Robert, Selby, Keith, and Wensley, Chris, Screening the Novel: the Politics of Literary Dramatization (London: Macmillan, 1990), p. 1–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. , D.L.M., ‘The Function of the Film’, The Nation, London, XXXI, No. 22 (26 08 1922), p. 720Google Scholar.

11. On the sexual and social politics of American prime-time serial drama, see Feuer, Jane, ‘Melodrama, Serial Form and Television Today’, Screen, XXV, No. 1 (01–02 1984)Google Scholar. On TV adaptations for the telenovela, see Litewski, Chaim, ‘Globo's Telenovelas: a Brazilian Melodrama’, in Paterson, Richard, ed., TV Globo: Brazilian Television in Context (London: BFI, 1982), p. 12–16Google Scholar. The term ‘mega-drama’ was first coined in industrial and review discourse around the televising of North and South (transmitted ITV, 8–22 Dec. 1986) and North and South: Book II (transmitted ITV, 13–21 Dec. 1987).

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13. Hilton, Julian, Performance (London: Macmillan, 1987), p. 50–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Jon Pope's previous directorial assignments at the Citizens Theatre have included Frankenstein (1987), Richard III (1988), and Macbeth (1989).

15. Anonymous, ‘A £500,000 Film with 12,000 Performers’, Illustrated London News, CLVIII, No. 4269 (12 Feb. 1921), p. 209.

16. Editorial Collective, ‘Films, Directors, and Critics’, Movie, No. 2 (Oct. 1962), p. 7–16.

17. See Elam, Keir, The Semiotics of Theatre and Drama (London: Methuen, 1980), p. 85–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18. Brooks, Peter, The Melodramatic Imagination (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), p. 4–8Google Scholar.

19. War and Remembrance (transmitted ITV, 2–11 Sept. 1989) and Till We Meet Again (transmitted ITV, 27–29 Dec. 1989) are two of many recent examples of the high-budget serial action-romances that contemporary TV industry discourse defines as the ‘mini-series’. Most commentators have agreed that the cycle was inaugurated by Rich Man, Poor Man (transmitted ITV, 14–30 July 1976).

20. Gross, Robert, Understanding Playscripts (Ohio: Bowling Green University Press, 1974), p. 4–6, 40–6Google Scholar; Jauss, Hans Robert, Towards an Aesthetic of Reception (Brighton: Harvester, 1982), p. 18–23, 79Google Scholar.

21. The Citizens' management estimated the overall production costs of the play as £120,000, thus making The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse a somewhat cheaper than average production.

22. Reviews appeared in The Guardian, 12 March 1990, p. 38; Glasgow Herald, 10 March 1990, p. 3; The Times, 14 March 1990, p. 20; Financial Times, 12 March 1990, p. 13; The Observer, 11 March 1990, p. 15; Scotland on Sunday, 11 March 1990, p. 36; and Glasgow Guardian, 23 March 1990, p. 11.

23. Morris, Meaghan, ‘The Practice of Reviewing’, Framework, No. 22–23 (Autumn 1983), p. 52–8Google Scholar. See also McArthur, Colin, Dialectic! Left Film Criticism (London: Key Texts, 1982)Google Scholar, for a useful series of deconstructions of reviewing practices within the ‘quality’ press.

24. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, p. 125.

25. Elsaesser, Thomas, ‘Vincente Minnelli’, Brighton Film Review, Nos. 15 and 18 (12 1969 and March 1970)Google Scholar.

26. Correspondence between the Hollywood film industry's principal trade association, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), New York City, and MGM on the subject of the distribution of The Four Horsemen in Germany is held in the MPPDA Reserve Archives. A letter dated 21 December 1926 from the MPPDA's then president, Will Hays, to the American ambassador in Washington reads: ‘Many cuts were made in The Four Horsemen and the Acting Consul-General in charge of the New York Consulate was satisfied. To develop further the whole situation, as well as help in the particular Four Horsemen incident, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made an entirely new version of The Four Horsemen so arranging it that it is still a good picture but so altered in regard to the German elements in it that it is so pleasing to Germany that the German representatives want it shown in Germany.… We have indicated that Metro is willing to call in all the prints and use only in the distribution of The Four Horsemen in this and other countries the new version. This can only be done, indeed, at a substantial expense. If this is done, certain things are to be natural consequents, such as a declaration by the Foreign Office in Berlin, certain publicities in the press there, etc. I am to hear today or tomorrow from the Ambassador whether or not these things will be brought up from their end if we are to do this splendid thing here. If this is done, it is not only for the benefit of The Four Horsemen but for the benefit of the whole situation.…’

27. The 1921 version of The Four Horsemen is considered pivotal by many analysts of silent cinema; for its role in establishing screen-writing practices, see Jacobs, Lewis, The Rise of the American Film (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1939)Google Scholar; for its importance to the development of the star system, see Everson, William K., American Silent Film (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; for its typification of ‘back-lighting’ and the ‘soft’ style of late-silent cinematography, see Bordwell, David, Staiger, Janet, and Thomson, Kristin, The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960 (London: Routledge, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28. Minnelli's, production of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is discussed in his autobiography, I Remember It Well (New York: Doubleday, 1974)Google Scholar. See also Vidal, Marion, Vincente Minnelli (Paris: Seghers, 1973)Google Scholar; de la Roche, Catherine, ‘The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’, Premier Plan, No. 40 (03 1966), p. 103–6Google Scholar; Domarchi, Jean and Douchet, Jean, ‘Interview’, Cahiers du Cinema, No. 128 (02 1962), p. 3–14Google Scholar; Serebrinsky, Ernesto and Garaycochea, Oscar. ‘Vincente Minnelli Interviewed in Argentina’, Movie, No. 10 (06 1963), p. 23–8Google Scholar.

29. Julian Hilton, op. cit., p. 153.

30. Sontag, Susan, ‘Film and Theatre’, in Styles of Radical Will (New York: Dell Publishing, 1978), p. 113, 119–20Google Scholar.

31. For a discussion of postmodernist style as ‘cultural dominant’, see Jameson, Fredric, ‘Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’, New Left Review, No. 146 (07–08 1984), p. 53–92Google Scholar.

32. McDonald, Jan, ‘The Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, 1969–79: a House of Illusions’, Maske und Kothurn, No. 29 (1983), p. 196–205Google Scholar.