If you were going to adapt the Horse and His Boy for Stage...

[Swanwhite]

This isn't about an already existing adaptation, but it seemed like the right place to put it. Perhaps we could also start a thread for the Logos Theatre's production of The Horse and His Boy which was really excellent.

In Canada and some other countries, the works of Lewis are now in the public domain so I've started working on my own script of the Horse and His Boy. My idea is to make the script available to churches, schools, theatre groups etc. in Canada so that it's easier for people to make productions of it.

I wanted to ask for suggestions and advice on what would matter most to you in a stage adaptation of the Horse and His Boy. What parts do you think are the most essential? What do you think could be left out? What could be added? What would you restructure? I'm open to all kinds of ideas.

I'm also playing around with the idea of making a musical version. I have several Horse and His Boy poems as a starting point for lyrics, and new ones spring to mind, but it would be quite an undertaking.

[HermitoftheNorthernMarch]

I hope you find groups that want to make productions of HHB, Swan, and I look forward to hearing the songs.

I made a very condensed script of HHB for my puppet group at church when I was a teenager, but our leader said that we couldn't do it. It would probably run about thirty minutes. It's still on my old computer and I could share it here if you'd like. I made a few changes in it to make it convenient for puppetry so it really isn't suited to other types of stagecraft.

On a side note, I have been thinking that I would like to make comic book versions of some of the Narnia books. Would it be legal for me to do that now (instead of waiting until 2033) if I only published them in Canada? I'm a U.S. citizen so I worry that it would somehow break copywrite or that people might smuggle them into the U.S. and that I could be blamed.

[Swanwhite]

I'd love to see the condensed script, Hermit

I'm not sure how the copyright works in relation to citizenship, but it's worth looking into! I've thought about approaching small independent publishers in Canada about publishing a Narnian poetry collection or things of that sort rather than self-publishing since Amazon is an American company.

(With fourteen years till the copyright is up, some of my ideas might take that long to create anyway )

[hobbit_of_narnia]

Oh wow, I should look into the copyright status of Narnia in South Korea...it never occurred to me that I might be free to do a lot of the stuff here I couldn't do in the States (maybe even publish that LB musical script [if I ever can get around to finishing it], sell fanart, etc.).

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

One thing that I consider absolutely essential (slight bias because it's my favourite scene in all of Narnia) is "I am the Lion". The mountain pass itself could be modified for simplicity's sake, but the speech (and Aslan walking next to Shasta to protect him from danger) must remain. It's such a solid statement of Aslan's sovereignty and omniscience, even though Shasta's perspective of events suggests otherwise.

[Swanwhite]

Yes! That is the crux of the whole story. I'll definitely be giving thought as I adapt the rest to make sure I keep (and perhaps add) parts that support the "I was the Lion" moment.