Hello, and welcome to the lesson.

I'm Mrs. Butterworth, and I'll be guiding you through the learning.

Now, this lesson is called "From Page to Stage," and we are going to be looking at the process of adaptation, so the differences between novels and plays.

We're also going to be thinking about what Helen Edmundson actually did to write this play, because obviously it's an adaptation of Andrea Levy's novel.

So we're going to be thinking about what it is she actually did.

Okay, so let's find out.

So by the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain in detail how Edmundson adapted "Small Island" for the stage.

Now, before we begin, there are some key words that we need to be aware of.

So these are multiplicity, dialect, Jamaican patois, and dialogue.

Now, multiplicity is like a variety or a large number of things.

So as we look at "Small Island," we will talk about this idea of a multiplicity of voices or a multiplicity of perspectives.

And this means there's more than one.

There are many perspectives or there are many voices.

Then we get this word, dialect.

And a dialect refers to a variation of language spoken in a particular part of the country or by a particular group.

So if we take England for example, there are many different dialects.

We don't all speak the exact same variation of language across the country.

We also get Jamaican patois, which is a variation of English, or it's a dialect, and this is specific to Jamaican speakers.

So you will notice that both Levy and Edmundson use Jamaican patois when writing the dialogue for their characters.

And that brings us onto our next keyword, the dialogue.

So this is the conversation and spoken interactions written for a playbook or film.

And obviously "Small Island," as it is a play, has lots of dialogue to explore.

So the outline of our lesson, "From Page to Stage" looks like this.

We're gonna start by thinking about the adaptation, so the differences between a novel and a play.

And then we're gonna think about bringing "Small Island" to life.

So we're really gonna think about what Edmundson has done to bring Levy's original novel to life to be on the stage.

Okay, so let's look at this idea of adaptation.

Okay, so I'd like you to discuss what do you think the main differences are between a novel and a play? So pause the video so you've got lots of time to discuss these ideas, or you may just want to sit quietly and think by yourself.

So pause the video now.

Great, thanks everyone.

Lots of really specific ideas coming through, and I love how some of you were drawing on your own experiences of reading novels or watching plays, so that's fantastic.

So let's share some of those great ideas.

So we've got our novel and our play here.

So a novel is mostly intended for a single reader.

So I think the key idea there is that a novel is made to be read, whereas a play is intended to be viewed, so watched by an audience.

So there's a real key difference there between being read and being watched, isn't there? The dialogue in a novel is written to be read, whereas in a play, the dialogue is written to be performed and spoken.

A novel, we know, is in prose form, whereas a play is a script.

So we know that layout, don't we, when we look at a play? A novel may use speech marks to show where someone is speaking, whereas a play, you will have the character's name and then the speech that follows that they speak.

A novel, usually, not always, but most of the time, is divided into chapters or some type of section, whereas a play is structured into acts and scenes.

Plays have stage directions to create setting and characterization, and a play is obviously very dialogue-driven.

Now, a writer will adapt their writing to match the audience, purpose and genre of a text.

So this is a really interesting thing to explore when we're looking at language choices, because both Levy and Edmundson will have made specific language choices when writing the novel and play "Small Island" in order to conform to these.

So what I mean by that is Edmundson will have had to consider how she laid out and structured her play because it's a different genre to the novel.

And likewise, Edmundson's play, which is to be spoken, which is to be performed to an audience, so that audience and purpose will be slightly different to Levy, so she would've had to have adapted the language to fit this purpose.

Okay, true or false time.

Plays use stage directions to create descriptions of setting, atmosphere and characterization, true or false? That's true.

Yeah, well done everyone.

Now, justify your answer by picking A or B.

Yes, well done.

This is different to novels, which use descriptive prose to develop settings.

Now, again, not all novels do this, but it is an interesting distinction to make in terms of stage directions in that description.

Andrea Levy wrote the original novel, "Small Island," and it was adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson.

Now, Laura has a very good question here.

She says, "So if Levy wrote the novel, does this mean Edmundson didn't really write anything?" And that's actually a good question, isn't it? What did Edmundson write if Levy wrote it originally? Now, Alex says, "Not quite, Laura, think back," and this is a really good idea, "think back to the differences between plays and novels that we just explored," so think back to everything that we've just done.

"What would Edmundson need to create in order to make it suitable for the stage?" So there are specific things that Edmundson would need to do to transform and adapt that novel.

So now you are going to discuss this, and I want to see if you can help Laura.

I'm sure some of you have the same question as well.

So let's think about it.

What interventions or what would Edmundson need to do in order to adapt a novel to a play? So in a moment, you're gonna need to pause the video to discuss your ideas, or you may wish to jot a few ideas down, or just think about your ideas to yourself.

Are you ready to pause the video? Go.

Okay, fantastic.

(laughs) So I think we're starting to realise that actually Edmundson has done some writing, so let's share those ideas.

So thank you, Alex.

He's going to start.

So "Edmundson will have adapted the dialogue to make it suitable for a live performance." So if you remember, we were thinking about the idea of a novel being made to be read, where a play is all about being, it needs to be watched.

So again, the dialogue will change.

So what this means is formatting the script.

So Edmundson will need to have done that, as well as making the dialogue sound like it would be spoken by the characters.

Laura says, "Good start, Alex." Absolutely, Laura, I agree.

And Laura's starting to think about this, and she says, "Well, Edmundson will also have re-structured the novel into acts." And Laura has looked at her copy and she's noticed that it has two acts.

So whereas Levy's original novel was actually divided up into sections, different characters, "Small Island" is divided into two acts.

So thank you, Alex.

He says that, "Edmundson will have crafted stage directions, too.

These are important as they give a lot of information around setting, atmosphere and characterization.

They really reveal the writer's intentions." Now, I've got to admit, I love reading stage directions in plays, because they're such an important part of the writer's job.

And Edmundson particularly really crafts beautiful stage directions that give us so much information about Levy's original ideas, about themes, about characters.

So stage directions are incredibly important, and Edmundson will have had to have written these.

So Laura says, "So it's almost as if Levy came up with the original ideas, character, plot, and themes, and Edmundson has developed these." And yeah, I agree with Alex.

"Exactly.

I think it's actually quite skillful to adapt prose to the stage." Yeah, it is.

And "Helen Edmundson has actually adapted lots of literary texts for the stage." So which one of these would Edmundson not have crafted in adapting "Small Island," A, B, C, or D? Off you go.

Great.

Yes, characters.

So although Andrea Levy and her novel will have been responsible for creating the characters, Edmundson would need to do stage directions, acts, dialogue, to name a few things.

So Andrea Levy's original novel presents the experiences of Windrush migrants.

So Andrew Levy's novel was written in 2004.

So I want us to think in terms of the play, what was the Windrush scandal, and why is this significant? So in 2017, it was revealed that the government, in failures of record keeping and understanding of its citizens' legal rights, was attempting to deport some of those who had come to Britain during the '50s, '60s, and '70s.

So it is called the Windrush scandal because it was a huge and devastating scandal, And it's important to note.

So as I said, Levy's novel was originally written in 2004, so it does not include anything to do with the Windrush scandal.

And Edmundson's adaptation ran at the National Theatre in 2019 and 2022.

And again, it doesn't include anything specific about the Windrush scandal, but what we need to understand is that context information, what was happening at the time, would have had had an impact on those audiences in 2019 and 2022, because those audiences watching the experiences of our Windrush migrants will have this idea of this scandal fresh in their minds.

So it will heighten, sympathy, empathy, and all of those emotions with this additional context.

And it really shows the cultural significance of this text.

So again, just to reiterate, with that scandal fresh in the audience's minds, the stories and dialogue adapted by Edmundson will have had an extra layer of significance.

And I think it's important that as you study the play, consider this contextual information when considering audience's reactions.

So what will the audiences be thinking and feeling in response to what is happening on the stage? So true or false, "Small Island" is about the Windrush scandal.

False.

Well done.

It isn't about the Windrush scandal, it's about the Windrush generation, but not about the scandal.

So can you justify your answer now by choosing A or B? Yes.

Excellent.

Edmundson's adaptation ran in 2019 and '22, which meant that the scandal had cultural significance in terms of audience reception.

So it's really important to try and understand that in terms of an interesting piece of context.

Okay, so we're onto our first task of the focusing on the adaptation.

So I would like you please to complete the Venn diagram, looking at similarities and differences between a novel and a play adaptation.

So as well as general comments, give specific examples focusing on "Small Island." So you'll need to give specific examples about the text.

So here's your Venn diagram.

We have the novel on one side and your play on the other.

So the outer circles you'll need to populate with differences, so what makes a novel, what makes a play? And then in the middle you will need to populate that with comments on similarities.

So there's an example, both are crafted.

Okay, so you're gonna need to pause the video, so you've got lots of time to put those ideas into your Venn diagrams, and I look forward to seeing completed diagrams. Okay, off you go.

Okay, let's feed back some of our answers.

Now, I've picked up on a few answers that you have given me, so thank you for those and we'll share those in a minute.

What I would suggest now is if you haven't got any of these in your own Venn diagrams, you can add to them now.

So let's look at our similarities.

You've got crafted, consideration of wider themes, both are considered written texts, they share the title, "Small Island," characters and plot.

Now, let's look at a novel.

So we've got prose, chapters, usually a single reader, but remember not always, but usually, it's written to be read, and the novel was written in 2004.

The play has stage directions, it is performed in front of an audience, dialogue-driven, acts and scenes, first performed in 2019, and the audience reception was impacted by Windrush scandal, and that's very specific to the play.

Okay, so what I'd like you to do is to look at your answers, and I'd like you to discuss which of these are text-specific.

So what I mean by that is which of these apply specifically to "Small Island"? Pause the video so you've got time to discuss your ideas.

Off you go.

Okay, great.

Yes, the novel was written in 2004, so that is specific to that text.

They both share the title, "Small Island." We couldn't say that about any text could we? So that's very text-specific.

The play was first performed in 2019 and the audience reception was impacted by the Windrush scandal.

So those are our text-specific answers.

Okay, should we keep going? So we are onto the second part of our lesson, and now we're going to be thinking about bringing "Small Island" to life, so how Edmundson adapted specifically Levy's original novel for the stage.

So in Levy's original novel, she wanted to show that history is made up of many voices and also to foreground the voices of Caribbean migrants.

And Levy did this in a number of ways.

She did this by including a multiplicity of narratives.

So there isn't just one person's story.

There are many stories, many narratives, this multiplicity.

Levy actually used monologues to structure the novel, so each chapter is told from a different character's perspective.

So the way that she structured her novel was in these monologues.

And Levy used the first person "I".

So all of that novel is told from the perspective of the characters in first person.

So what I would like you to think about now is I'd like you to read the dialogue that has been created by Edmundson.

So let's read it together first.

So Hortense to audience, "She clearly believe that she is the heroine of this situation, but I can assure you, she is most certainly not.

Here's another piece of dialogue, Gilbert to audience.

"My mother always say that violence solve nothing.

And I always say she's right." And then our final piece of dialogue, this time Queenie to audience, "How did I end up here?" So what I would like you to do is thinking about Levy's original ideas for her novel, I'd like you to discuss, how does Edmundson adapt Levy's ideas for the stage? So pause the video so you've got time to discuss these, or you may wish to think to yourselves or even write a few ideas down.

Pause the video now.

Great, thank you everyone.

That was quite a tricky task, wasn't it? To think about those big ideas in relation to a different text, but you did spot some really interesting things, so let's share those ideas now.

Okay, so we've got this idea that Levy included a multiplicity of narratives in her novel, so she had lots of different characters.

And we can see here that Edmundson focuses on three narratives: Hortense, Gilbert and Queenie are our main characters from the play.

And we know that Levy uses monologues to structure her novel, so what Edmundson does is she uses direct address.

And the reason Edmundson does this is to convey the individual perspectives and experiences of multiple narratives.

And this is exactly Levy's intention in her original novel.

In the play, Edmundson is able to allow those characters to tell the stories using direct address.

So it makes it really personal like Levy's novel.

And then finally, like Levy, Edmundson uses a first-person point of view to develop the plot.

So Levy uses the first person "I," and Edmundson does the same.

So actually the characters tell their own stories to the audience.

Edmundson develops Levy's narrative structure using dramatic techniques.

And this is important to think about.

So like Levy, Edmundson uses a multiplicity of narratives to convey the different experiences of history and foreground different voices.

So at times, Edmundson's dialogue isn't particularly naturalistic.

We know that in real life people don't turn to the audience and speak to an audience.

That's just not real life.

But Edmundson has made that choice.

She's made the choice to use those dramatic techniques, like direct address, to develop Levy's original ideas.

So it's really clever and skillful on Edmundson's part.

So true or false time.

Levy uses direct address in her novel, true or false? That's right, that is false.

So justify your answer picking A or B.

Yes, that's right.

Direct address is a dramatic technique used by Edmundson to allow the characters to present their own stories and perspectives.

So I want us to think about why Edmundson would include Jamaican patois in her dialogue.

So I've gathered three examples from the text.

Let's just read them.

Okay, so I'd like you to think about, why would Edmonton choose to include Jamaican patois? Now, remember, Jamaican patois is a dialect that is specific, a variation of English specific to Jamaican speakers.

So why would she use this? So I'd like you to pause the video to discuss your answer to this question.

Off you go.

Excellent.

Some really thoughtful ideas there.

Thank you.

So something that I heard someone say was this idea about to create authentic and believable characters.

Now, we have characters from Jamaica here, so we'd need them to be speaking their dialect to sound authentic and believable.

And it's also this importance of Levy's original theme about developing and foregrounding the voices of Caribbean people.

So Levy really wanted us to hear those voices.

So Edmundson needs to use this Jamaican patois to emphasise this.

And also it develops characterization.

So this quote here, "Cha, this is a white man's war," is actually from one of our characters, Elwood, and it tells us a lot about the importance of his Jamaican identity.

And Edmundson develops Levy's exploration of dialect as a marker of class and cultural identity.

So as you read "Small Island," you will see how Edmundson has really developed this idea of the importance of accent and dialect and how these are viewed by other people, and what they tell us about class and cultural identity.

So Jamaican patois is A, B, or C? Absolutely, it is a dialect specific to Jamaican speakers.

So we're onto our second and final practise task.

Well, done everyone.

So a theatre reviewer wrote this headline, "Helen Edmundson does not write 'real' plays; adaptations are not skillful." And what I would like you to do is using your newfound knowledge of adaptations, explain why this reviewer is wrong, and give examples of what a writer has to do to adapt a novel to a play.

So we have looked at this a lot throughout this lesson.

So all of those specific things that Edmundson has done to develop Levy's novel, you will need to include those in your answer.

And there are some sentence starters to help you.

So "I disagree.

Edmundson's adaptation of "Small Island" is skillful because," And then "for example," and "Although Levy came up with the original ideas, Edmundson needed to," "For example." so pause the video so you've got plenty of time to answer this.

Off you go.

Well done everyone, and thank you for taking on that theatre reviewer that tried to say that adapting plays is not skillful.

I think we have put them in their place.

So here is Lucas's response.

Thank you Lucas.

What I would like us to do is what else could Lucas include to explain the skill of adaptation? So let's look at what he has done.

So "I disagree, Edmundson's adaptation of 'Small Island' is skillful because developing Levy's initial ideas in order to be suitable for stage requires a lot of specific language choices." That's a really great statement, Lucas.

Well, done.

And here's Lucas's first example.

"For example, Edmundson would need to adapt the original dialogue to a script and spoken form to ensure that the characters sound believable.

Edmundson uses Jamaican patois to explore Levy's themes of hierarchy and identity and how dialect is intrinsically linked to class and cultural identity." So this is already a fantastic response, but what else could Lucas include to explain the skill of adaptation? Just to think to yourself for a moment.

So perhaps Lucas could go on to explore stage directions or structure, for example, so he could use the phrase: "Furthermore, although Levy came up with the original ideas, Edmundson needed to consider how to present the structure of the novel.

For example, Edmundson uses direct address to convey the personal experiences and narratives of the characters, and this allows for a multiplicity of perspectives much like Levy's original novel, which allows for both writers to explore and foreground different historical voices." So really lovely work there from Lucas.

Well done.

And use this just to check through your own answers.

You may have something different, which is fine, or you may just want to add to your responses.

So we have reached the end of the lesson.

Well, done everyone.

Hopefully you can now see the hard work that Edmundson has put in to adapt that play.

It really is a skillful thing to be able to adapt language in that way.

So let's just remind ourselves of everything that we have covered.

We know that Edmundson adapted the novel, which means she developed Levy's original ideas to suit the form of a play.

Edmundson is responsible for writing stage directions, chronology of events, and developing characters through dialogue.

Edmundson develops the multiplicity of Levy's original narratives using dramatic techniques.

Edmundson uses patois, dialect and colloquial language to develop Levy's realistic characters.

And the use of direct address in the play mirrors the first-person narratives in the novel, giving characters unique voices.

So thank you so much for all of your hard work today, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.

Thanks and goodbye.