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Stage adaptation of `Midnight's Children' draws mixed reviews

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON FEB. 2. The Royal Shakespeare Company's much-awaited stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie's celebrated novel, `Midnight's Children', has opened in London to mixed first reviews with even sympathetic critics not quite able to summon up enough enthusiasm for it.

Although individual performances have been praised, the sheer scale of the effort has been recognised and, for once, there have been no cheap personal shots at Mr. Rushdie, the problem seems to lie with the novel itself. It is simply too big, too complex and bursting with too much energy to lend itself easily to stage adaptation. As one critic noted, adapting this "epic novel for the stage is like trying to lasso a leviathan... inevitably it thrashes about and ultimately slips from the grasp of the theatrical troika of Rushdie himself, Simon Reade (dramatist) and Tim Supple (producer)''.

Cambridge academic and feminist writer, Germaine Greer, said that an "iconic'' novel had been reduced to a "booklet''. "It is like Dynasty in a travel costume,'' she said not at all convinced that the novel worked as a play.

The use of a cinema screen to depict the political background against which the action takes place helps to speed up action but at three-and-a-half hours it is still too long for an audience looking for quick gratification — like The Daily Telegraph critic who was "exhausted'' at the end of the show despite its "undeniable energy''. But then he is one of those who found the novel itself tough going, and gave up after "150 overwrought pages''.

The Times' man was left with "contradictory feelings''. "They retain too much of the original. They also ditch too much... a bold effort, but, more than any stage adaptation I know, it leaves you hankering for the page,'' according to him.

Under the heading "Sprawling Passages to India'', The Times said staging a novel such as Midnight's Children was like "repacking Pandora's box while cramming the Indian Ocean into a saucepan''.

The Guardian had the same problem — too many characters and incidents "subsumed by this restless Indian kaleidoscope''.

Result: "an evening of memorable events in which huge narrative gallons are squeezed into a pint pot''. Another compared it to a "52-course meal'' — simply too sumptuous to digest. But Rushdie's old friend, Bill Buford, former Granta Editor, stood by him and declared the play an "exceptional moment in British stage''.

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