University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses July 2015 Encountering "Agaat": Toward a Dramaturgical Method of Adaptation Paul Adolphsen University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, and the Playwriting Commons Recommended Citation Adolphsen, Paul, "Encountering "Agaat": Toward a Dramaturgical Method of Adaptation" (2015). Masters Theses. 178. https://doi.org/10.7275/7076737 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/178 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ENCOUNTERING “AGAAT”: TOWARD A DRAMATURGICAL METHOD OF ADAPTATION A Thesis Presented by PAUL ADOLPHSEN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS May 2015 Theater © Copyright by Paul Adolphsen 2015 All Rights Reserved ENCOUNTERING “AGAAT”: TOWARD A DRAMATURGICAL METHOD OF ADAPTATION A Thesis Presented by PAUL ADOLPHSEN Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________ Megan Lewis, Chair ______________________________________ Stephen Clingman, Member ______________________________________ Harley Erdman, Member ___________________________________ Penny Remsen, Department Head Department of Theater ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by thanking the members of my thesis committee. Thank you to Megan Lewis for saying yes that day in May when I sat at her dining room table and said: “I have a crazy idea, but I think I want to make an adaptation of this book— Agaat—for my thesis. What do you think?” Her passion, advocacy, and commitment have been unparalleled. I am grateful for the hours she spent reading drafts aloud with me in her office, sharing her incredible insights and impulses about the work at hand. I am grateful to Harley Erdman for his thoughtful and probing questions about the adaptation. His commitment to and interest in this project gave me the confidence to find my voice as an artist. And thank you to Stephen Clingman for first introducing me to this astounding novel, for connecting me with Marlene van Niekerk, and for pushing me to be more specific and nuanced in my thinking and writing. I am incredibly grateful to Emma Ayers, Tiahna Harris, Alison Kerr, Tristan Lewis-Schurter, Trenda Loftin, Cory Missildine, Julie Nelson, Michael Schurter and Alex Salazar Greenstein for acting in the first-ever public reading of my adaptation. They performed this long and complicated text (replete with guttural, Afrikaans words) with commitment and sensitivity. I could not have asked for a better group of people to give life to this work for the first time. I’d also like to thank my graduate cohort—Mike Blagys, Amy Brooks, Jared Culverhouse, James Horban, Elizabeth Pangburn, and Glenn Proud—for their friendship and support over these last three years. Thanks must go to Michiel Heyns for his superb translation of Agaat, which formed the bedrock of my work and which continues to captivate me. And finally, I am iv grateful to Marlene van Niekerk for giving me permission to adapt her tough and achingly intimate novel for my thesis. It is my profound hope that I have done it justice. v ABSTRACT ENCOUNTERING AGAAT: TOWARD A DRAMATURGICAL METHOD OF ADAPTATION MAY 2015 PAUL ADOLPHSEN, B.A., SEATTLE PACIFIC UNIVERSITY M.F.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Megan Lewis This M.F.A. thesis in dramaturgy presents the first-ever stage adaptation of South African writer Marlene van Niekerk’s 2004 novel Agaat. Van Niekerk is an internationally acclaimed novelist, short story writer, poet, and dramatist particularly known for her lengthy novelistic excavations of Afriakner identity, in which sexuality, race, and gender collide in compelling but fraught ways. Covering nearly fifty-years of South African history—from the establishment of apartheid in 1948 through the nation’s transition to democracy in 1994—Agaat investigates everyday cycles of abuse and intimacy through the story of white farmer Milla de Wet and her coloured adopted daughter-cum-maid, Agaat Lourier. This thesis foregrounds the interconnections between theory and practice by presenting both the adaptation itself and a prolonged engagement with theories of adaptation and dramaturgy. It is framed, then, around a simple question: How might dramaturgy and adaptation, as cultural and artistic processes and products, encounter one another? Through analysis of current discussions in the fields of Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and reflections on the particular challenges and possibilities of adapting van Niekerk’s novel to the stage, the thesis argues that adaption can be understood as a mode of encounter that opens up spaces for connection between people, texts, and cultures. A vi dramaturgical method of adaptation is concerned not with hierarchy, authority, and fidelity, but rather with viewing adaptation as a conversation between a network of resonances. The thesis begins with an overview of van Niekerk’s work and context, moves to an examination of current conversations in Adaptation Studies and dramaturgy, and concludes with a prolonged reflection on the process of adapting Agaat to the stage. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 2. CONTEXT ............................................................................................................ 13 Marlene van Niekerk ............................................................................................. 13 Triomf (1994) ........................................................................................................ 17 Agaat (2004) ......................................................................................................... 20 The Plaasroman .................................................................................................... 33 3. THEORIZING ADAPTATION ............................................................................ 51 Theory & Practice ................................................................................................. 51 Process & Product ................................................................................................. 51 Translation & Adaptation ..................................................................................... 63 Appropriation & Encounter .................................................................................. 66 Entanglement & Dramaturgy ................................................................................ 72 4. PROCESS ............................................................................................................. 77 Why Agaat? .......................................................................................................... 77 Starting Impulses & Foundational Questions ....................................................... 81 Thread One: The Narrative Present ...................................................................... 84 Thread Two: Second-Person Recollection ............................................................ 88 Thread Three: Stream of (Sub)Consciousness ...................................................... 94 Thread Four: Journal Entries ................................................................................ 95 Agaat's Silent Voice & Liminal Position ............................................................ 102 Milla & Jak ......................................................................................................... 105 First Draft ............................................................................................................ 106 Second Draft ....................................................................................................... 111 Public Reading .................................................................................................... 115 Future Work ........................................................................................................ 120 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 126 viii APPENDIX: AGAAT, ADAPTATION DRAFT TWO (MARCH 2015) ....................... 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................... 258 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “Adaptation has run amok.”1 So says Linda Hutcheon in the preface to her exhaustive book-length exploration of the subject, now in its second edition: A Theory of Adaptation. Indeed, the process and products of adaptation abound throughout literature, fine art, music, and theatre. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards an Oscar each year for best-adapted screenplay, and many blockbuster films are transcoded into videogames, spin-off