Author(s): STORK THEATRE COLIN

Performing Arts Drama Plays

The Red and the Black and other French Plays is a celebration of the late Colin Duckworth's life and his contribution to the theatre. Colin's dual world of academia and theatre were inextricably linked and intertwined. He could be described as an authority on Samuel Beckett, Flaubert, Ionesco and Voltaire or as a scholar, teacher, broadcaster, director, dramatist, novelist, translator, and TV, film and stage actor.His major contribution to French language and literature was recognised by the French Government when he was appointed Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1984.The four English language plays featured in this book were translated and adapted by Colin Duckworth from four French classics: The Red and the Black by Stendhal; Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; À la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust; and L'Amant and L'Amant de la Chine du Nord by Marguerite Duras.The plays are: The Red and The Black, Who Killed Emma Bovary, Marcel and Albertine: Proust on Love and The Lover.Colin's dream was to encourage theatre attendees to read more of his beloved French literature after seeing his transadaptions. He appreciated that changing the genre from novel to play was in itself very complicated but he didn't want to dumb down or parody classic French novels. In writing each of the plays featured in this book for the Stork Theatre, Colin sought to find a way to get to the heart of the novels using only one or two actors on a very small stage. For Marcel and Albertine he re-read the whole 3000 pages of Proust's great work and, a little like Michaeangelo with a piece of marble, sought to find the essence of the story and put it in the play. This was true of all the French novels Colin based his plays upon. He knew that there was no point in lifting dialogue from novels and putting it into a play as the form is so different. That is why these are plays that were inspired by the novels rather than being direct translations.