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The Problem of “Datedness”

Posted by DCA Theater on August 21, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Promethean Theatre Ensemble

by Ed Rutherford, co-director of A Month of Development

As I work on adapting these short stories by John Collier to the stage, one of the major hurdles I’ve had to overcome personally is how to deal with and react to content that I’ll charitably call ‘dated.’  I love John Collier’s stories- they’re alternately witty, creepy, goofy, and can make for very entertaining reads.  But it’s really clear that some of these stories were written by an author living in an era before widespread enlightenment with regards to gender, and race.  The fact of the matter is, it’s clear to a certain extent that Collier was something of a misogynist. 

I’m deeply entertained and/or compelled by the stories he constructs but don’t always feel entirely comfortable with the sum total worldview his stories espouse- too often, it seems like the female character is a castrating shrew, or a brainless sexpot, or a wispy virginal epitome of purity…anything besides a fully fleshed-out human being.  (His gentlemen aren’t always paragons of virtue either, mind you…)  He also shows a tendency to brutalize or exoticize the cultural ‘other,’ in a similar way to, for example, some of the early translations of the Arabian Nights (or for that matter, many Bugs Bunny cartoons!)  This subset of the ‘datedness’ problem I term the “Show Boat Dilemma,” after the (often altered) opening lyrics of the first song in the musical “Show Boat.” (Wikipedia it if you don’t know what I mean.) 

These issues aren’t universal across all of John Collier’s work, but I feel like one of my responsibilities as an adapter is to confront those nasty edges a bit.  True, I can change lines, modify dialogue, etc. to remove offensive content.  But at the same time, does that defame and do injustice to the author’s original intent?  At one point am I bowdlerizing instead of just updating?  On the other hand, if an author is culturally insensitive by modern standards, should his or her work just fall by the wayside entirely?  Where is the happy medium?  Do some of you have favorite authors or artists whose work has cultural or gender-related implications with which you aren’t entirely comfortable?  I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts in the comments.