Writing a play: Anyone done it? Is this doable or am I deluding myself

For some reason, I've always thought the Laxdaela saga, a medieval Icelandic story based on real events in the Viking Age, would make a great play. It has everything: star-crossed lovers, beautiful noblewomen sold as slaves who become concubines to wealthy men, blood feuds, malicious rumours, psychic dreams, scorned women, and tragic endings. Here's a summary of the story if anyone is thinking "Just what is she on about?"

Due to this, I decided to start working on an idea I've had for a while: a full-length stage adaptation of the saga, beginning in the 9th century with Ketill Flatnose, his daughter Unn or Aud the Deep-Minded and her descendants and ending in the 11th with the death of Kjartan and Gudrun becoming a nun. What this means is that the cast will be huge. (and there's a possibility of double roles, for example Aud/Gudrun). I'll actually be using a 19th century translation found here for some of the dialogue.

My problem is that I have only a vague idea how I want it to start. Since Ketill in the saga was said to be opposed to Harald Fairhair's attempt to rule all Norway by forcing Norwegian chieftains to submit to him, I had an idea that I would start with a messenger who arrives at Ketill's house and gives him bad news; the king is ruthlessly attacking everyone who poses a threat. Ketill and his sons then decide to leave Norway. It serves the purpose of jumping into the action right away.

Has anyone written a play before and does anyone have any tips on writing good plays? All my other attempts at writing plays failed and I want this one to work. Would it be doable for me to be as faithful to the saga as possible, keeping many of the events or would this be a crazy idea and it be better to trim it down to focus on only the Kjartan-Bolli-Gudrun relationship and its consequences? IMO there's a huge amount of dramatic potential in Hoskuld discovering Melkorka isn't mute.

edited 1st Dec '13 3:47:45 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

Does anyone have suggestions?

You've started like twenty projects in the last year. I might be wrong, but I think most of them ended up as Orphaned Series. One thing at a time.

edited 1st Dec '13 9:46:36 PM by Wheezy

most of them are kind of ''on hold", actually. But point taken.

Plays are pretty easy to write. You just need to know the difference between stage directions and normal directions along with basic lighting so that the tech team isn't going to be completely on their own.

Also, remember that basic play formatting will keep the character's names in allcaps to make it easier for the directors and actors.

edited 2nd Dec '13 9:40:11 AM by Sharysa

Since you have a two-century timespan, more or less, it might be better as a set of linked plays. Say, three plays. Find the story arcs that will allow each of the three to have a satisfying ending in itself, but tie into the next.

Do up a cast list and timeline. Who can you cut without hurting the plot? Which scenes absolutely need to be onstage, and which can you get away with describing in dialogue?

Pick a dialogue style. Will you use lots of poetic language, how much Icelandic vocabulary can you reasonably expect an audience to put up with, would it be better to go with plain modern English?

Write a couple of key scenes, to get a feel for the material. Are you enthused and ready to finish the play, or suddenly dreading looking at a saga ever again?

@SKJAM: Thanks.

Oh boy, this is the Icelandic saga thing?

Well, then you REALLY need to understand that scriptwriting is different from any other writing, and you'll have to be fine with giving it up to a production team after you're done. Of course, since this is a hypothetical new play, you'll actually need a year or two of workshopping it so you can iron out the unseen kinks (and there will be unseen kinks), while making it suitable for the stage, because some things won't be able to be portrayed without 1) lots of money, or 2) even more time in rehearsals. Which will be about five days a week and eight hours a day to begin with.

Four things that tend to be tricky onstage are:

• Sex. If it's onstage sex, it's safer to have actors be the age of consent even if the characters aren't supposed to be, because you might be slapped with a child-porn accusation if they aren't.
• Fights. While you don't need actors that are at least legal-adult age, it's a lot easier if they are since adult actors have more physical strength/endurance, basic stage-combat training, and insurance. Plus, weapons cost a lot.
• Anything involving fog/smoke/fire, flying, or animals. Harnesses for "flying" can be uncomfortable, and also make it doubly hard for the actor to make themselves heard. Literal fires are illegal onstage due to safety codes (even candles or matches), so stage-fire would fall to the set and lighting designers. Smoke/fog machines can be unpleasant with smaller theaters, because they spill over into the audience. Not a serious issue, but it's hard to focus on watching a play if you or the guy next to you is coughing. And animals are pretty obviously hard to find and hard to work with, so you may need to have more human actors to portray them. Which is a hard thing to do as well.
• Music/Dance. Music or dance makes everything harder because you need either a composer or choreographer (or both), musicians, and actors who can sing/dance well enough for the play's needs.

And THEN you'll need to give at least some input with the costume, set, and lighting designs once everyone's figured out the script. Because your ideas might be one thing, but cost/design/actor limitations are another.

edited 8th Dec '13 6:24:28 PM by Sharysa

Yep. Thanks. Sagas make great plays IMO. A lot of drama from feuds and politics.

No problem! And this doesn't mean you absolutely have to avoid these four topics—you just need to remember to keep the additional work in mind.

While I haven't written any plays, I've always wanted to write a Play that's basically William Shakespear meets HP Lovecraft. The Only problem is I don't have a plot for it, or the Wit William Shakespear had to write it.

Still, I am sure that writing a play is doable.