The Story Of The Witches
The Witches was originally published in 1983 by Jonathan Cape with illustrations by Quentin Blake, who has worked with Dahl on the majority of his works. It is rated as one of the top all time children’s novels. Despite originally receiving mixed reviews due to the much darker tones the story takes compared to his earlier works. Dahl based the story on his own childhood and the grandmother is based upon his own mother Sofie Dahl, who was in fact Norwegian. Rather without the trauma of actually turning into a mouse.
Marcus Paus Composer of The Witches Opera |
The book was further adapted into an unabridged
audio reading by Lynn Redgrave, a stage play and a two-part radio dramatization
for the BBC. The book was taken even further becoming a film in 1990 directed
by Nicolas Roeg, starring Anjelica Huston, Rowan Atkinson and Jasen Fisher. To name
just a few. An opera came next in 2008 by Marcus Paus and Ole Paus and a 2020
film directed by Rober Zemekis.
You can listen to an audio version of 'The Witches' HERE
The play we are performing in class was adapted in
1992 by David Wood. David Wood is a renowned children’s playwright and takes it
upon himself to create theatre that is engaging for a younger audience. Well aware
this might be the child’s first introduction to the theatre, and he hopes to
create a lifelong love from the get-go. The play managed a West End season as
well as touring around the country twice. Since then, the production has also
been taken abroad, notably in Belgium and Scandinavian countries.
“… cracking adaptation …”
The Guardian
“THE
WITCHES is a total delight.”
Evening Standard
“…
this vermonious entertainment has a good hiss-and-boo rating and can be warmly
recommended to dutiful parents as well as to their children.”
Sunday Telegraph
To find out more about David Wood CLICK HERE
The 1990 movie was released on 25th May
1990 and to this day holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based upon
the reviews from 43 critics. With consensus of
reviews telling us ‘With a deliciously wicked performance from Angelica
Huston and imaginative puppetry by Jim Henson's creature shop, Nicolas Roeg's
dark and witty movie captures the spirit of Roald Dahl's writing like few other
adaptations’ With an average rating of 7.55/10, which is pretty
good. The film was nominated for many awards such as:
·
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Actress (Anjelica Huston)
·
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Make-up (John Stephenson)
·
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Music (Stanley Myers)
·
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger
Actor (Jasen Fisher)
·
Nominated – Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress (Mai
Zetterling)
·
BAFTA Awards (1991)
o
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Makeup and Hair (Christine
Beveridge)
It is a truly fantastic film, full of great acting and special effects that
still holds up to this day. Even if you do notice that the majority of the
witches are actually played by men as you become older.
To see a clip of the 1990 'The Witches' CLICK HERE
The 2020 film was released October 22, 2020 with a stellar cast of Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, and Stanley Tucci, and is narrated by Chris Rock. Talks of a new adaptation of Dahl's novel began as early as December 2008, when Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in making a stop motion film. No further developments on the potential project emerged until 10 years later in June 2018, when Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct and write the script. Del Toro would produce, alongside Zemeckis and Alfonso Cuarón, in addition to having a screenplay credit. In comparison to the 1990 film, this adaptation did not seem to fair as well to the critics with a rating of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, with its consensus commentating ‘The Witches misses a few spells, but Anne Hathaway's game performance might be enough to bewitch fans of this Roald Dahl tale. ‘
To see the trailer for the 2020 adaptation of 'The Witches' CLICK HERE
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