From Page to Stage: Tanika Gupta’s Theatre Adaptation of Jackie Kay’s Memoir Red Dust Road

Autori

Giovanna Buonanno Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Abstract

The stage adaptation of Jackie Kay’s 2010 memoir Red Dust Road written by playwright Tanika Gupta premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2019. The play dramatises Kay’s identity quest as a mixed-race child, born to a Scottish woman from the Highlands and a Nigerian student, and adopted as a baby by a Glaswegian couple in the early 1960s. The article will focus on the strategies Gupta deploys in her rewriting and argue that by incorporating passages from Kay’s poetic oeuvre, Gupta pays a moving tribute to Kay, one of the most powerful voices in black British women’s writing.

Bibliografia

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Webliografia

Fisher, Mark. 2019. Red Dust Road review, The Guardian, 15 August, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/aug/15/red-dust-road-review-jackie-kay-royal-lyceum-edinburgh-festival-2019 (consulted on 10/06/2024).

Gardner, Lyn. 2006. ‘Write about an arranged marriage? No way!’, The Guardian, 25 July, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/jul/25/theatre1 (consulted on 1/05/2024).

Jackie Kay speaks to Tanika Gupta at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JITVUjwF0I (consulted on 15/05/2024).

Kanjira, Patience. 2019. Review of Red Dust Road, The Mancunion, 20 September, https://mancunion.com/2019/09/20/review-red-dust-road/ (consulted on 10/05/2024).

AI Profile. 2021. Making the Difference: Tanika Gupta, Playwright. Arts Industry Magazine, 29 April, https://www.artsindustry.co.uk/feature/2475-ai-profile-makingthe-difference (consulted on 12/06/2024).

Paddy, David Ian. 2002. Jackie Kay. The Literary Encyclopedia, https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5158 (consulted on 10/09 2024).

Keywords

Tanika Gupta, adaptation, Jackie Kay, Red Dust Road, Black and Asian British women’s writing

DOI

10.17456/SIMPLE-227

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Pubblicato

29/11/2024