Adapting novels for the stage can be a hugely complicated and emotional process; you may have to kill your babies, change events, time sequences - and even the ending.
And while we’ve seen some incredible successes over the years, such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, or War Horse, there is little guarantee. Even Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird wasn’t universally adored.
Manjeet Mann has had to leap many hurdles in turning her award-winning young adult book Run, Rebel into a stage play. Yet, conversation with the soft-spoken actor/writer produces a loud shout in the ear that this play will be demanding rave reviews.
Why? Much of the story of the central character, Amber Rei, is based on Mann herself. And as such, the truth, and poignancy screams out from the page. The teenager in the novel finds herself trapped – by her family’s rules, by their expectations, by her own fears. But she takes to the running track and becomes completely free.
"As her body speeds up, the world slows down." However, Mann’s story is every bit as desperate and can’t fail to wrench at an audience’s emotions.
“Seventy per cent of Amber is me,” the writer admits. “I too wanted to escape from my family. I felt that I wasn’t being presented with choices in life. My family is conservative, you see. They had a very strong idea of how my life should turn out. I had no agency.”
“But I wanted to become an actor,” recalls Mann, her voice harking back to the pleading she has resorted to in trying to convince her parents. “At school I was quiet. But when I would read in class or take to the stage I realised I had a spark.” She reflects. “Amber managed to escape by running. My escape was through acting.”
But the process of splitting from her family was as hurtful as it was tragic. “I was seen as a black sheep, and I know I’ve been selfish.”
Are you, Manjeet? Aren’t you simply trying to follow the path that signposts happiness? Would the alternative not be unthinkable? “Yes, that’s true,” she says with a sigh. “But as you can tell, I have to remind myself of that.”
Run, Rebel’s publishing success suggested that it was entirely worthy of development into a stage play, winning the author countless awards. “Interestingly, young adult books aren’t only read by teenagers.”
Yet, it’s a dark book, featuring themes of entrapment and domestic violence. How hard was it to turn it into a play? “It was harder than I thought,” says Mann. “I figured it would be easy, given I’d already written the story. I thought I was halfway there. But I had a lot of help with it from dramaturg Tessa Walker. And I’m not precious about making changes. And so together we listed the dramatic moments, the beats of the book, that would move the story along. Of course, some characters disappeared, but others were expanded.”
In the storyline, Amber’s mum is the victim of domestic abuse, but this empowerment tale tells of how she is pulled alongside her daughter on the journey. “This is a woman too frightened to stick up for herself. And she’s illiterate and doesn’t see a way out.”
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When Mann wrote the first draft of the book however her publishers deemed it too dark. It needed hope, and that’s what she has infused. The story hints at the possibility that the father, the perpetrator of violence, goes on his own journey of self-reflection.
“I did a talk in a Glasgow school recently and asked one girl if she thought the dad changes and she said ‘I think he does’. Perhaps that schoolgirl needed to think he had? “That could have been the case,” she agrees. “But it showed the importance of hope in a story.”
How prominently does hope feature in Manjeet Mann’s own life? “Well, I’m very happy,” She says, smiling. “My partner and I live in Musselburgh, which is where the Queen Margaret drama college campus is based.” She smiles. “This is the college where I wanted to come to study acting but wasn’t allowed to. Now, it’s all turned out the way I wanted.”
And is there hope that her family will accept her life choices? “That’s more of a work in progress,” she says wistfully.
Run, Rebel, the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, November 7-9.
Don’t Miss:
Men Don’t Talk: Clare Prenton’s moving and provocative play was written ‘following cups of tea, cake and spirited conversations' with real “shedders”, and welcomes audiences into a friendly fictional shed. Touring Scotland from October 18, including Paisley Arts Centre, November 14.
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