Oor
Wullie has been everywhere this year. This summer, some 200 customised statues
of the dungaree-clad scamp were scattered around the country for Oor Wullie’s
Big Bucket Trail, a public art project designed to raise money for children’s
charities. The icing on the cake should come next week when the spiky-haired comic
strip icon is made flesh for a brand new musical that opens at Dundee Rep later
this month for a festive run prior to a major cross-country tour.
For
Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie, aka Noisemaker, the internationally renowned
musical theatre team writing the show, taking writer R.D. Low and artist Dudley
D. Watkins creation – a staple on the pages of the Sunday Post since 1936 - from
page to stage has become something of a labour of love. Having previously
written Little Red and the Wolf and The Snow Queen for Dundee Rep, who also
co-partnered Noisemaker in developing Hi, My Name is Ben, which premiered in
New York, there was nevertheless initial trepidation at taking on such a
well-loved character.
“We
were a wee bit nervous,” Gilmour admits of the duo’s response after first being
approached to take on the project. “At the time, Oor Wullie had just celebrated
his 80th birthday, and with statues of him all over the country, he
was probably more zeitgeisty than he’d ever been, so we wondered how we could
take a title so well known, and how it might work.”
As
McKenzie points out, “There are a lot of expectations around it. When a title means
such a lot to people, you have to find a story you can tell that still keeps
the essence of the original, but which also brings something new to it.”
To
help with this, as Gilmour explains, “We did a lot of reading of a lot of
annuals. We knew we were taking something that by its nature was short-form and
turning it into long-form. The more we got into the annuals, the things that
stood out after reading them back to back were themes of family, friendship and
community, and that’s what we wanted to bring out in a way that keeps the
authenticity of the characters, but which also makes it something for Scotland
today.”
Comic
strip spin-offs on stage and screen are nothing new, and date right back to
Ally Sloper, the red-nosed stumblebum who was regarded as the first ever
recurring character in comics. Sloper was created by writer Charles H Ross and
illustrated by Emilie de Tessier in 1867 for Judy magazine before being given
his own title, Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, in 1884. Three Ally Sloper feature
films were made, and his character was an influence on W.C. Fields and Charlie
Chaplin’s onscreen personas.
In
1981, Reg Smyth’s tabloid layabout Andy Capp was adapted into a stage musical
by Trevor Peacock, with songs by Peacock and Alan Price for a show that starred
Tom Courtenay in the title role. A TV series featured James Bolam as Andy. More
recently, while Marvel and DC comics universes have taken full advantage of new
technology in their ongoing franchises of big-screen blockbusters, a big-budget
Spiderman stage musical, featuring music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge from
U2, hasn’t fared so well.
Probably
closest in tone to Oor Wullie in terms of iconic status and feel-good factor is
You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Clark Gesner’s musical first appeared in 1967,
and was inspired by Charles M. Schultz’s globally recognised newspaper strip,
Peanuts.
In
terms of Oor Wullie’s contemporaries, Rob Drummond’s stage version of his near
neighbours, The Broons, preceded him onstage in 2016. Like that play, Oor
Wullie will be directed by Dundee Rep artistic director Andrew Panton, with the
Sell a Door company co-producing in association with Noisemaker.
Rather
than simply use old comic strip plotlines in a sketch-like show, Noisemaker’s
thoroughly modern Oor Wullie will retain all of the comic strip’s characters
for an original stand-alone story. Dundee publishers DC Thomson, who first
introduced the character to the world, are also on board for the project. While
lovingly protecting the brand, those currently overseeing Oor Wullie’s antics
also appear keen for them to reach out to new audiences.
“The
idea of reading a comic strip in a Sunday paper every week is changing,” says
Gilmour, “and so is the idea of how a comic strip functions in people’s
everyday lives, and I think part of the rise of things like stage adaptations
is about how to keep an audience engaged, and to introduce new audiences to the
characters.”
As
McKenzie point out, “DC Thomson are totally passionate about keeping the
integrity of the characters in the show. Most of the notes we get are about
what someone would or wouldn’t say, and once we get that right, it allows us to
use it as a jumping off point rather than a straight adaptation.”
“By
the end of things, says Gilmour, “that will hopefully make for the start of a
brand new adventure.”
Oor
Wullie, Dundee Rep, November 23-January 5; Theatre Royal, Glasgow, January
20-25, 2020; King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, January 28-February 1, 2020; Gaiety
Theatre, Ayr, February 3-8, 2020; Eden Court, Inverness, February 10-15, 2020;
Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling, February 26-29, 2020; His Majesty’s Theatre,
Aberdeen, March 3-7, 2020; Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, March 9-11, 2020;
Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, March 12-14, 2020.
The Herald, November 9th 2019
ends
Comments