LIVERPOOL poet Roger McGough is one of the secret weapons in the new season of productions at Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse theatres unveiled yesterday.
McGough admits “it came as a shock” when asked to adapt a 17th Century French comedy for the stage.
Moliere’s Tartuffe is a stage classic, but when artistic director Gemma Bodinetz read through various translations and adaptations, she was not totally happy with them.
For Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture she wanted work on an international scale “but with a Liverpool heartbeat”.
She decided that the man for the job was McGough.
“It was a challenge and I was not sure if I was up to the challenge,” McGough said yesterday. “But I thought I’d try it.”
His version is written, as was the original, in rhyming couplets. “I actually find it easier to write in rhyme than in prose,” he said.
The plot and setting remain the same, the story of a conman who, using religion, worms his way into the life of a respectable man despite warnings from his family.
Bodinetz, who will direct the production at the Playhouse from May 9, said she choose McGough for his wit, sense of joy and lack of pretension.
Tartuffe is one of three new productions created by the theatres for the Culture Year.
St Helens-born writer Esther Wilson will contribute Ten Tiny Toes, a drama based on the effects of a soldier’s death in the Iraq war on a family.
For this she was inspired by the experiences of campaigner Rose Gentle whose son was killed in the war.
It will go on stage at the Everyman from June 13.
The third show , a musical, is Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi and is set in the famous Liverpool hotel mostly during its heyday in the 1930s.
“It was a time when Hollywood came to Liverpool and once again the world is looking at Liverpool,” explained Ms Bodinetz.
The show written and directed by Phil Willmott will be performed at the Playhouse from June 28.
