Twisted straight talking

The mother of plays: All About My Mother's seemingly implausible plot and characters attracted Samuel Adamson's attention
10 April 2012

The last time Samuel Adamson had a play on at the Old Vic, in 1997, things did not go well. The critics were not kind. 'Grace Note was not written with such a big venue in mind,' says Adamson sheepishly. 'It didn't respond well to the space. But All About My Mother is enormous. It's a widescreen melodrama. Everyone wears their emotions on their sleeve. Hopefully it will work well.'

Hopefully it will. The Old Vic's version of Pedro Almodovar's Oscar-winning film, which will star Diana Rigg, is one of the autumn's most eagerly awaited theatrical events and Adamson is the man responsible for translating Almodovar's extravagant vision on to the stage. The film is a magnificent beast - a vivid, Technicolor fantasia about a grieving mother's search for the transvestite father of her dead son. It is set against the dirty underbelly of Barcelona and populated by an endearing cast of transgressives including a transsexual prostitute and a nun with Aids. Moreover, it's firmly rooted in the interior landscape of women. 'It's about women coming together, finding themselves in sanctuaries, supporting each other,' Adamson agrees. 'It's about the creation of a series of surrogate families.'

Although theatrical metaphors abound in All About My Mother, it's an intimidating film to adapt. It's chaotic and strange, brimming with plot implausibilities, seemingly inexplicable character behaviour and driven by a mysterious baroque quality. Adamson was an Almodovar fan before he got the commission, yet unsurprisingly was nervous when he first met him to talk about his version of the film, not least since it makes several departures from the original screenplay. 'But he was very charming and very funny,' says Adamson. 'In fact he was very excited about anything that departed from the film and suspicious of anything that was too close to it. He wanted what I wanted: a play that spoke completely in its own theatrical language.' Adamson is no stranger to tricky adaptations - in 2005, he successfully adapted for the National Henrik Ibsen's Pillars Of The Community, a play previously considered so problematic that for decades it was deemed virtually unstageable. He's also adapted Chekhov and in 2006 was at the National with a work of his own, Southwark Fair.

That play was a metrosexual comedy of errors set in gentrified Southwark. It was about as far removed from Almodovar's surreal and seedy Spain as you could get.

Yet there was also something about its bizarre plot coincidences and vivid pageant of characters that chimed with Almodovar's heightened, magical cinematic world - which may explain why Adamson didn't baulk at taking on All About My Mother. 'Almodovar takes immense joy in the coincidences in his films, in almost a Dickensian way,' says Adamson. 'He would argue that they are completely truthful and that they tell us something about who we are. Yes, it seems outrageous that All About My Mother should be about a boy who is the son of a transvestite who sleeps with a nun. But Almodovar told me that he had interviewed a transvestite who paid for his 18-year-old son to have a pair of tits, but that he couldn't put that in the film because no one would believe it. Real life is often stranger.'

Adamson came to England from his native Australia 17 years ago and has three plays of his own under his belt, including his debut Clocks And Whistles, written when he was 26 and a huge critical hit at the Bush Theatre.

Despite the affinity Southwark Fair seems to exude, Adamson describes his own work as actually being rather anti-Almodovar. 'A lot of my characters go round repressing everything although, of course, I am interested in that moment when they break and it all comes out. That's what's so wonderful about this project - the characters say what they think, and when they speak it's straight from the gut. It's a very Mediterranean thing actually - the British cast really notice it.'

Like Almodovar, however, Adamson is interested in looking at a person beyond their sexual labels. 'For all its risque; characters, All About My Mother isn't about sex at all. Ultimately, what I'm interested in is the things we need to do and the way we need to negotiate with people to get through the day.

'And I'm interested in how hard that is, how wonderful, depressing and exhilarating it is, and then what happens when those negotiations break down.' Almodovar, you suspect, would thoroughly agree.

All About My Mother, previews from Aug 27, opens Sep 4 until Nov 24, Old Vic, The Cut SE1, Mon to Sat 7.30pm (Sep 4 7pm), Thu and Sat mats 2.30pm, £10 to £45. Tel: 0870 060 6628 www.oldvictheatre.com Tube: Waterloo

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