The Evolution
of Fitcher’s Bird
by Mark Steven Jensen
A recent, very satisfying production experience was
my work on Hardcover Theater’s The
Dark Side of the Brothers Grimm. Hardcover Theater
is a Minneapolis-based company that specializes in adapting
literature
that has not been performed before on stage. The play
I ended up writing went from being a typical adaptation
to an intense journey into a dark, dangerous corner of
the human psyche. Want to hear how this happened? Then
read on…
The Premise
As defined by Artistic Director Steve Schroer,
the premise for our project was that five writer-director
teams would
adapt Grimm’s fairy tales for an hour-long
production. Because of the time limit, each writer-director
team
would have about 10-12 minutes to stage their piece.
The production would be mounted at the Bryant-Lake
Bowl, a theatre with a very small stage, so scenery
could only
be minimal. Lastly, Hardcover Theater would cast
seven actors, so we needed to write with that acting
pool
(or less) in mind.
Now perhaps this sounds limiting.
Actually, I find that writing a play with set ground
rules can be
a great way
to free creativity. Because the base parameters were
defined, I could focus on developing a play that
followed those rules. Of course, I did my playwriting
best to
push these rules to the limit.
The Tale Most Bloody
For my director partner, I teamed
up with Victoria Pyan. We both wanted to stage a very
obscure, very
bloody tale.
(The production would be mounted around Halloween.)
I read several promising candidates, but ultimately
I felt
the most affinity for “Fitcher’s Bird.”
Fitcher
is a wizard who kidnaps girls and imprisons them
in his house. He then gives them free reign
inside his
locked abode, forbidding them to enter a certain
room. Of course, every girl goes into said forbidden
room,
which turns out to have an ax and a big bowl
filled with body parts from previous girls who
entered
this room.
Fitcher is undone when the Youngest Sister pretends
to be one of his magical birds and traps him
in his house.
She and the townspeople then burn up Fitcher.
The
Raven Version
Hardcover Theater stages plays using various
storytelling techniques. All of these techniques
involve direct
address to the audience, but they vary from
a single actor setting
the scene to multiple actors performing the
actions as they describe them. It is effective shorthand
for setting
up the world of a play.
During our meetings,
we discussed the idea of using a raven to link all
the short plays
together.
Since
my
tale involved a bird, I decided to write
the play using this raven as a narrator. The tale
also involves
three
sisters, their father, Fitcher, nasty friends
of Fitcher’s,
and the townspeople. So I went for broke
and wrote parts for all seven actors, with
these
actors doubling minor
roles. This first draft came in at 13 pages,
a little long. But hey, I needed all of that
to adapt the story,
right?
The Three Sisters Version
Well… the reaction to
this draft was not favorable. The cast size was too
big. It would create a logistical
nightmare during rehearsals, as the short
schedule required multiple plays to be rehearsed at
the same time. Could
I rewrite it using fewer actors? I agreed
I could.
All productions have limited resources,
so I’ve
found that re-conceiving a script to
fit these limits, while still not reducing
the impact of the script, is
an essential requirement of the craft.
I got rid of the raven character and
had Father, Oldest Sister, and Middle
Sister play Fitcher’s evil friends.
The script was down to five actors and
12 pages. The story was the
same.
The Two-Character Psychosis Version
My collaborators
agreed that this version was better. But now the actor
needs
for the other
plays were
becoming clearer, and five actors
would still be too demanding,
as only one other scene could rehearse
at the same time as “Fitcher’s
Bird.” Could I limit
the cast size to just two actors?
WHAT?
TWO ACTORS?
Actually, as I was working
on the second version, I had toyed with
the idea
of the three sisters
being played
by one actor. Both Steve and Victoria
had been thinking along the same
lines. Victoria
also
wanted to explore
some hidden things in the tale.
What came to my mind immediately was Fitcher’s
sadomasochistic tendencies. Victoria
was also interested in how the
Youngest Sister
reacts to the horror of finding
her sisters chopped to bits.
So the Father character was
removed completely; there was something
more dangerous about
these three young
women living by themselves near
the woods. Having one actor play
all
three sisters
was also delightful,
as
now the role required a significant
acting challenge. I also studied
sadomasochistic behavior (as
defined by Freud), giving Fitcher more
specific, control-freak type
actions. Lastly I added a dimension
where
the Youngest Sister emerges as
a victorious,
but
mentally damaged
victor.
At this point, I realized
something magical had occurred during this
development process. As
the limitations
on the script became more drastic,
the
script itself became
much more interesting. What
began as a faithful adaptation of a
quirky, bloody tale had turned
into a fascinating
performance piece that explored
psychosis and its effects.
To
the Finished Lines
We used this version for rehearsal
and ultimately performance.
Laurel Orman
and Hans Hauge
were cast in the two roles,
and they played them expertly.
Along the way, we found more
moments to
cut and the
final
performance draft
came in at nine pages. The
script was faithful, plus
a little
more, to the original material.
In the end, Fitcher enjoyed
getting burnt in
the fire,
and Youngest
Sister enjoyed
watching him burn. The dark
side of the Brothers Grimm
indeed… |
