Julie - adapted by Zinnie Harris from Miss Julie by August Strinberg

Task: Adapt a Scene

with tips from Zinnie Harris

Before Mary Stuart or Julie could be brought to the stage – the two writers involved had a large task – to adapt an original version.

Choose a scene from either of these plays – or choose a scene from a play you are studying or that you just love – and adapt it.

Think about what you want to achieve from adapting a text that already exists. There are many things to consider, for example do you want to change the time period or the setting? How do you want to develop the characters? Challenge yourself to bring something new to the play.

Below is some advice from Zinnie Harris who wrote and directed Julie.

Use these to guide you through your adaptation process.

Good luck


Advice from Zinnie Harris    

What is the first thing you do when you set out to adapt a text?

Work out if there is something you can definitely bring to the text. No point ending up with an identical version just in slightly different words. I think a modern playwright should be saying something with a new version, or revisiting it somehow.

Find a very plain original version or commission a literal translation that you then can use as your starting point.

The next thing I do, having agreed to the project is to copy out the original or literal translation, by hand. This takes a long time and is quite laborious, but I think it is the only way to get the original under your skin and be inside the internal rhythm.

I then work from my hand written version, covering it first of all with notes in biro, thoughts and ideas on each line and section.

Then when I have been right through a few times, I put it down and start to write – normally at the computer. I tend to keep the hand written original in front of me, although certainly wouldn’t refer to it line by line, only just perhaps once or twice while writing a scene and again at the end to make sure nothing has been missed. It’s an odd juggling act of staying faithful, and yet not so faithful that you are simply reproducing. You have to go far enough from the original text to make it your own, and yet not too far either so that it becomes unrecognisable. There are no hard and fast rules about how to achieve this, you have to use your instinct.

Inevitably, the first draft isn’t quite there yet, it tends weirdly to still be too faithful, and the new version hasn’t quite taken flight yet. Or at least that was what I found with Julie so I left the first draft for a week or two while I did something else, then came back to it with a fresher eye.

Then I would start writing a second draft. And when writing this draft, I wouldn’t refer back to the original at all. The only source now is my own first draft and I found this is when the piece really becomes its own. From then on I am trying to work with the new material. I found I didn’t really refer back to the original much after that, perhaps only once when the second draft was complete, almost as a checking in process.

Finally before rehearsal, I had a few days workshop on the new text with actors, and again re-wrote after this to form a new third draft which was pretty much what we went into rehearsal with.

Is it important for you that you 'stay true' to the original author/text?

Yes, as stated above, you are walking a type-rope of staying true in some ways but allowing for a new thing to be created as well. I think an audience expects you to have taken the classic play and made it your own, otherwise what is the point? We might as well simply have performed the original.

Zinnie’s top 5 tips for adapting a play:

  1. Make sure you have an angle on the original text before you agree to the project. You know you can bring something extra and have something to say / add.
  2. Use a very plain version of the original, as old as possible or even better a literal translation if the original wasn’t English to begin with.
  3. Copy out by hand before you start.
  4. Don’t refer to the original line by line as you work, allow the new text to find its own feet. This is why it is so important that you are extremely familiar before you start – hence the copying out.
  5. Workshop with actors before the rehearsal process starts.

Resources compiled by Catrin Evans