2011 Productions
"William" the 2011 PLAY
by Paddy Salmon
The 2011 PLAY will be “WILLIAM”, a freely adapted, musical dramatisation, in two parts, of some of the “William” Stories by Richmal Crompton.
Apparently, John Lennon was influenced by the William stories. He loved William’s anarchic, rebellious spirit – so much so that he too created a “gang” of four boys. We all know them; they’re the Beatles.
I grew up on the William stories, which were written by a woman called Richmal Crompton and which started back in the 1920s and ran on until the late 60s. William, who is eleven years old, stays the same age, just like his family and friends, though English society changes around him. The stories take in the Second World War period and post-War Britain. In a sense they act as a sort of map of middle class society, during a time of great stress and change, in a comic mode and with plenty of humorous irony.
I have chosen to set the two parts of the play in two periods – the early Twenties and just after World War II. What I have tried to do is to take several stories simultaneously and adapt them rather freely so that more characters can participate. Purists will have to excuse the liberties I have taken in framing each sequence, but I believe I have kept to the spirit of the originals, if not the exact wording.
William is a romantic and a rebel. His family is very “bourgeois” – strongly middle class and very conventional . The setting is a suburban “village”, probably about 30-40 miles out from London, where William’s father (like the fathers of his beloved gang of Outlaws) commutes to work every day in the City. William hates school and he gets into a lot of trouble, but usually, he is trying to help… somehow. He loves adventure and has a code of honour, which is very strong. He hates soppy girls (and soppy boys) but has a secret admiration for pretty, dark-haired Joan, who has always adored him, secretly too.
The adult world is usually repressive and censorious. It promises stale values of obedience and conformity. It dislikes romance, adventure… and children! William’s brother is also a romantic, as is his sister; they both have a string of girl friends and boy friends but they and their “set” are also highly scornful of William, who gets in their way and complicates their lives.
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Children, on the other hand, usually warm to William (apart from his arch rivals, the Hubert Laneites), as he has charisma; life with him is never dull, even though it may lead to trouble. In the end, William usually wins out (by good luck or by his innocent perseverance) just as much as he loses out. But the battle to retain his own brand of individuality is one which is a constant in his life.
Richmal Crompton’s stories are very funny and wry, but they make few concessions to children. The vocabulary is very adult and one of the joys of reading the William stories for me was to be challenged by words like “dejected”, superfluous”, “incredulous”, “impenitent”, “awry” and so on. For me, growing up in Bombay at the time, the stories were an eye-opener and a real education, in more ways than one. And, interestingly (as they are very “male” centred), they were written by a woman! Although very dated in some respects, they have retained their popularity and are constantly being reissued. Check out the web site if you are interested and try reading the originals!
Paddy Salmon, August 2010
Dernière modification le 06-12-11 par
