Nigel Stone admires the hope displayed in this adaptation of the classic film Shawshank Redemption but doesn’t quite get the fear of its maximum security penitentiary setting.
Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption is one of four Stephen King novellas, published together in a book called Different Seasons back in 1982. In the collection, Shawshank represents Spring because “hope springs eternal”. And hope is an essential part of the story, indeed the tagline is “Fear will hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”
Frank Darabont adapted the novella for the screen, and the subsequent film is often cited as one of the greatest movies of all time in polls. Darabont’s screenplay was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. The film lost out at the Oscars, but then it was up against Forrest Gump.
In this stage adaptation stand-up comedians, Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, have taken a story about an innocent man, wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his wife and her lover, and turned it into an adequate play.
The two leads excel with Ian Kelsey as the wrongly accused Andy Dufresne, and Patrick Robinson as his friend Ellis ‘Red’ Redding behind bars. They hold the production together with their strong performances, and they are ably supported by the rest of the cast, but there’s something missing.
Despite being witness to gang rape, corruption, and a heartless penal system, we seldom feel any fever-pitch tension. The prison is occupied by killers, but unless you count the “sodomite sisters”, played by Kevin Mathurin and Leigh Jones, the rest of the inmates are a likeable bunch of guys. The inmates spend a lot of their time playing catch, sitting in the prison library, and having a laugh with one another. Think more Ronnie Barker’s Porridge than Ray Winstone’s Scum.
This isn’t a bad play by any stretch of the imagination, and there are moments when we can hear Stephen King’s mastery of dialogue breaking through; but neither is it a brilliant play. It doesn’t drag; in fact, the evening flies by. But maybe that is a part of the problem. We are told about the desolate lack of hope, the isolation, the long, lonely days and years of prison life, but once again, we rarely feel them. Dialogue and a soundtrack are used to illustrate the passing of time; one exception being a moment when Red offers to replace Andy’s Rita Hayworth poster with a poster of Raquel Welsh. It is a moment that works beautifully. If only there were more like it in the play.
Judging from the reaction of the audience tonight, there were a handful of people in the theatre who were unaware how the story ends. Lucky them; because if you’re a fan of either the King novella or the Darabont film (or both), then “Shawshank Redemption” the play, as so often is the case with stage adaptations on this scale, might disappoint.
Reviewed by Nigel Stone on 31 August, Leeds Grand Theatre where it runs until 5 September and touring.