Stage-Bound: Feature Film Adaptations of Canadian and Québécois Drama

Kimberly J. Frail is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library
at the University of Alberta.

Public Services Librarian
University of Alberta Libraries
Bibliothèque Saint-Jean

Stage-Bound is an exhaustive, scholarly analysis of previously uncharted
territory. In the book, André Loiselle, a professor of film studies at
the University of Carleton, sets out to reclaim feature film adaptations
of Canadian plays that have been dismissed by critics for being
“stage-bound” and that have therefore been overlooked in many
Canadian film studies and theatre courses. Loiselle argues that the
screen adaptation needs to remain rooted in the original stage play in
order for the audience to understand the relationship between the two
versions. To support this hypothesis, he analyzes “the passage from
theatre to film theatricality” in selected Canadian feature film
adaptations.

In Chapter 1, Loiselle defines his topic, outlines trends and
tendencies that distinguish the Canadian film and theatre industries
from their international counterparts, provides the theoretical context
that will guide his analysis of the adaptations, and presents an
overview of “stage-bound” films from 1942 to the present day. He
claims that Canadian filmmakers typically choose plays that exploit the
conflicts between stage and film and are therefore the most challenging
to transpose from one medium to the other. Furthermore, he points out
that the tensions between stage and screen are paralleled by those that
their characters experience, thus achieving symmetry between the content
of the dramatic work and its method of delivery.

In Chapters 2 and 3, Loiselle presents an in-depth analysis of five
plays and films that encompasses such elements as dialogue, stage
directions, and visual composition. Having established the criteria for
his interpretation of the adaptations, he is able to deal with a much
larger list of dramatic works by elucidating only one or two key
elements of each film or play in Chapters 4 and 5. He concludes with a
discussion of theatricality in film adaptations since the 1990s. The
book includes a list of film adaptations of original Canadian stage
plays, endnotes, a lengthy list of works cited, and an index.