LONDON.- In 2016, when theater director Jonathan Butterell was considering a proposal to adapt Annie Proulxs 1997 short story Brokeback Mountain for the stage, he wondered how to translate the proses vast landscape and insular emotions into a play.
Last month, in a central London rehearsal studio, Butterell and Ashley Robinson, who wrote the play, tried to answer that question. To help the cast connect with Proulxs story of a cowboy and a ranch hand falling in love against the wide-stretching landscapes of 1960s Wyoming, black-and-white photographs of American plains and mountain ranges were tacked to the walls during rehearsals.
The vastness has been there from the very beginning, Butterell said in a recent interview. When it came to evoking the storys emotional landscape, the director had stuck one sepia-toned photograph, of a lone cowboy in a snow-covered Wyoming, behind a pillar. The image speaks to the bit of us that feels alone in the world, Butterell said. Maybe hes at peace with this, maybe its the source of his agony.
Butterells Brokeback Mountain opened in previews May 10 at @sohoplace in Londons West End. Its the first time the story has been adapted for theater an opera by Charles Wuorinen premiered in Madrid in 2014 and each version now follows in the footsteps of Proulxs text and the film that popularized it: Ang Lees 2005 Academy Award-winning adaptation, which is often cited as one of the best LGBTQ+ films of all time.
Butterell said he was aware of his audience having expectations based on the film. Theyre inevitable, he said, but I dont mind that.
This theatrical version also has some Hollywood clout. Its lead characters, Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar, are played by BAFTA-nominated actor Mike Faist and Oscar-nominated actor Lucas Hedges.
In late 2016, Robinson first wrote a treatment for what he called a memory play based on the short story, after speaking with composer Dan Gillespie Sells and Butterell. Robinsons script stated that the Wyoming setting should not be conveyed in a purely literal sense, and his story is set in 2013, with an older version of del Mar reflecting on the years he spent with Twist between 1963 and 1983.
Proulx approved of Robinsons vision. She has high hopes for the play, she said in a recent email interview. When I read Ashleys script several years ago, I thought he had done a fine job.
In Proulxs story, del Mar and Twists interior worlds are conveyed by an omniscient narrator. In the stage adaptation, music does much of that work.
These two men cant sing, Gillespie Sells said, because they dont have an emotional dialogue. Instead, a character called The Balladeer played by Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader sings with an onstage country and western band. She takes us through time, Butterell said. Sometimes its from night to day. Sometimes its 10 years.
Brokeback Mountain will be the first time its two lead actors have appeared onstage in five years. Faist, who plays Twist, originated the role of Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway, and has had more recent success in film, including Steven Spielbergs 2021 remake of West Side Story.
Hedges hadnt acted in a while when he was sent the script, he said, having been focusing on writing instead. The Brokeback offer and playing del Mar changed that. There wasnt an angle I didnt love about this, he said.
As the project entered its final week of rehearsals, both actors were grappling with the process in different ways. Hedges said he was experiencing tragic and triumphant ups and downs about his own work. I have a day where I think Ive figured it all out, and then a day when it all disappears, he said. The collective experience of theater was daunting compared to working in film, he said, adding that onstage, I cant use tricks to make it through.
Faist concurred: Its a challenge, and its terrifying, mainly because of the expectations of having to match the source material and 2005 film, he said. But as terrifying and frustrating as it is, I really am having the time of my life, he added.
Butterell said that Faist and Hedges were as men, as actors, very different creatures. Faist, he said, had a sense of life and vivacity, while Hedges has this deeply complex interior landscape thats very much of Ennis.
Neither Hedges, Faist nor Butterell had revisited Lees film since they were approached for the project. The truth of the matter is, no matter what, hes not Heath Ledger and Im not Jake Gyllenhaal, Faist said of the films two lead stars, who both earned Oscar nominations for their performances. He and Hedges, Faist added, would both bring their own weird things to the roles.
The production has forced Faist to confront his traumas, he said. We can take those traumas, turn them around, he added, and, he hopes, make the audience think deeply about their own lives.
Following the success of the Brokeback Mountain film, Proulx said fans of her text sent her fan fiction that rewrote the ending of her short story, claiming the original was too sad. She told the The Paris Review that those fans had misunderstood the story and stated that it was, most importantly, about homophobia.
This is the first adaptation of Brokeback to be released since the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 U.S. states. Robinson who lives in Brooklyn but was raised in the tiny town of Lockhart, South Carolina said he wrote it to remind audiences that gay trauma still exists.
These stories arent necessarily being told anymore because of a trend to put onstage what we want the world to be, he said, referring to the theater community. Thats a wonderful thing to do, but we shouldnt cancel out all of the opportunities to talk about whats going on underneath it.
Butterell added that the fight against homophobia was not over in Britain either, citing a recent spike in the number of attacks on LGBTQ+ people.
This is a tragedy, Butterell said of the play. Of course love exists I dont want it to be solemn but the tragedy of this piece is that fear wins.
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.