Why does Uncle Remus not appear in this adaptation?
He added nothing to the stories themselves apart from a narrative device that we felt was unnecessary given the relatively simple structure of the stories themselves and the visual way we will be retelling them. This production is very physical – we are incorporating elements of circus, and slapstick, and commedia del arte… Also, to have used Uncle Remus would have immediately located the stories in a context of U.S. slavery, which was one I didn’t feel competent (without having spent far more time in this country) to deal with. The stories existed as myths, fables and histories long before Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus told them, and we are seeking to re-find that core of the stories. Q: What was the biggest challenge of adapting these stories into a piece of theatre? A: Wow. There were a lot of challenges. First of all, the short amount of time we had was terrifying. And collaborating with two other Co-Authors can get confusing – which stories we each like best, who has the fi
