‘I prefer the remix’: localising the classics

This paper explores and investigates the efficacy of the use of Pro-Localism in a specific urban environment and asks the question: how can iconic literacy classics and historical drama/biography be rewritten and ‘localized’ to reflect a sense of a place, people and culture. I explore the writing, production and performances of my plays Revolution Farm (Orwell), and Alice in Canning Town (Carroll), and argue that these plays were not straightforward stage adaptations of literary classics, but radical re-imaginings of the original source material, and new plays in their own right. I investigate the notion of literary adaptation as being analogous to a DJ remix or re-edit; appropriating and changing other materials to create something new. I discuss the terms transposition, movement of proximation, and sustained appropriation, and how these elements and theories of adaptation were applied to the methodology and creative process behind adapting two canonical texts for the stage. I feature extracts from a research journal/diary I kept during the writing and production of Alice in Canning Town, which documented in detail the creative process behind the writing of Alice, and serves as a personal commentary/reflection on the challenges of adaptation. My research contends that a localist and grassroots approach is the most effective way of empowering wider access to the arts, arguing for an increased emphasis on performance in local spaces rather than in prestige/ heritage theatres.