(Soloski’s article appeared in the Guardian, 10/5.)
Last week, I brought a cluster of literature students to The Argument, David Greenspan's improbably entertaining adaptation of Aristotle's Poetics, the earliest extant work of dramatic criticism. Many of the students were so charmed by Greenspan, a splendid writer and performer, that they didn't immediately appreciate the difficulty of bringing an ancient work of literary analysis to the stage. The Poetics is wonderfully insightful, but it's also mannered and repetitive. While it analyses drama, it is not itself dramatic. Searching for an analogue to suggest the complexity of Greenspan's task, I said, "It would be like writing a musical based on Das Kapital." Then, later that day, I remembered. Someone already had.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2011/oct/05/unlikeliest-stage-adaptation-version
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