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Thoughts on The Shawshank Redemption play

Monday, September 21st, 2009

In my blog post a few blogs ago, I said I was going to see Shawshank Redemption at the theatre. Well, I saw it, and it did not disappoint. I was worried that I would simply be seeing the film replicated on stage (and a poorer version at that) but I was very impressed with the adaptation.

It was grittier than the film I thought, and they changed enough to keep things interesting even for those like me who could probably recite you whole chunks of the movie, whilst still keeping true to the film. I thought they might have gone with the Stephen King’s original vision for Red and casted a red-headed Irishman in the role (the play did premiere in Dublin after all…) but I suppose Morgan Freeman has branded that character so much so that to move away from that image of Red would have been too great a change. All the cast was excellent and I was particularly impressed with Kevin Anderson (playing Andy Dufresne and who’s I’d last seen in the 90s film Sleeping with the Enemy) and Keir Dullea (playing Brooks). They also bore an uncanny resemblance to the actors in the film - not sure if that had anything to do with my appraisal of them.

Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend the evening and the production certainly got a thumbs up from me.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity Manager

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