Andrew Davies and his views about Adaptation

 Andrew Davies and his views about Adaptation:

            Andrew Davies, a screenplay writer, has achieved “fame” in his capacity as adapter. According to Andrew Davies, Adaptation is, indeed the art form of democracy.  He “sums up” what audience look for in a good adaptation. He has identified ten “secrets” to becoming a successful adapter:

1. Read the book.

2. Ask yourself: Why this book, and why now?

3. Ask yourself: Whose story is this, really?

4. Don’t be afraid to change things, especially openings.

5. Don’t start without a plan.

6. Never use a line of dialogue if you can achieve the effect with a look.

7. Crystallize dialogue to its essence.

8. Write scenes that aren’t in the book.

9. Avoid voice-over, flashbacks, and characters talking directly to camera.

10. Break your own rules when it feels like the right thing to do.

Davies ‘secrets’ reveal certain things:

Ø  The adapter need not be a servant of the adapted author.

Ø  He is free to change the text to appeal to a mass contemporary rather than a elite audience.

Ø  Adaptation is an art of democratization, a “freeing” of a text from the confined territory of its author and of its readers.

Ø  The devotion to an author’s words is the death knell of the adaptation.

Significantly enough, Davies’ advice seems to be to liberate the text. Thus he makes adaptation, the art form of democracy, indeed. Actually, his ‘secrets’ are governed by democratic values. In other words, his secrets are the rules of commonality. According to Davies the adapter need not be a servant of the adapted author. He must be free to change the text to appeal to a mass contemporary. He should think of the mass rather than elite audience. In this way adaptation is the art of democratization. It is the art of “freeing” a text from the confined territory of the author and of its readers. The adapter should ‘liberate’ the text. It is not necessary that he should pay devotion to the author’s words. Thus, he makes adaption – the art form of democracy. Adaptation brings literature to the masses. It also brings the masses to literature. Adaptation dilutes, simplifies, and therefore appeals to many rather than the few.