How snow can you go

If creativity really is what kicks an artist sky-high and beyond, then the actor and director Alan Stanford has at least two reasons to be cheerful this yuletide.
Following its successful run at the Helix in Dublin, Stanford’s adaptation of Jennifer Johnson’s novel How Many Miles to Babylon goes nationwide in November, with runs at plays in the Black Box, Galway, Glor in Ennis and Iontas in Castleblaney.
For the most part, however, Stanford's attention is focused on his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the centre piece of the Gate Theatre’s Christmas programme.
Both works demonstrate Standford’s fondness and talent for literary adaptation. So what is it about the very specific challenge of adapting a novel for stage that fires Stanford’s creative juices?
“The fact that you cannot put a book on the stage, the fact that you have got to create a play because a book is a book is a book and a play is a play is a play,“ he says.
“So even though you use a narrative form, you can’t just take the words, say them and expect the drama to occur. Of course, you can use a narrator and I have done so in several adaptations I’ve written.”
Stanford believes that regardless of whether one is writing a book or play, the most important thing is to be true to your characters.
“You have to remember that any play is, fundamentally, a piece of storytelling," he says, "and you tell it through character and situations and when a play loses that concept of storytelling, it loses its fascination for the audience. A good adaptation preserves the sensibility of the original.
“When you are taking something that has been written in one form and turning it into a story in another form, be it a play or a movie, the challenge is to maintain the feel but change the medium through which it is told.”
Stage versions of Dickens are no novelty. Stanford was determined to bring something new to A Christmas Carol.
“Originally Dickens’ novel was adapted by John Mortimer and commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company,” he says. “When we decided to do it, I realised it would be impossible on The Gate stage because it required such technical equipment and facilities we simply don’t have.”
He also had difficulties with the structure of Mortimer’s adaptation. “I found [his] version slightly confusing in the way it was put together. My ego being what it is, I decided it needed alteration.”
Stanford’s Christmas Carol has been a seasonal staple for several years, but he still gets a thrill from it.
“Part of that is the fact that A Christmas Carol is a glorious tale to be told by actors and we do it beautifully.”