Frame of Reference | Adapting Solzhenitsyn

Between 1985 and 1990 I worked at the Dallas Theater Center. During that time I had the privilege to attend the rehearsal process while Adrian Hall adapted Robert Penn Warren’s ‘All The King’s Men’ for the stage. One morning while I was working in the scene shop of the Arts District Theater on the north edge of downtown Dallas, Texas, I saw Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Cancer Ward’ as a stage play in my mind’s eye. I had read ‘Cancer Ward’ in school. Half way between the table saw and the tool room I saw a picture of how I wanted to present the book on stage. As soon as I got home from work that day I took my copy of ‘Cancer Ward’ from the bookshelf, fired up my typewriter, and started to extract the passages required to realize my vision. The result was a short piece, not a full-length play, but what I needed to present the arc of what I had in mind.

I showed the piece to Ken Bryan, the late Artistic Director of the Dallas Theater Center. He was positive about the piece and encouraged me to develop it more fully. I continued to work on the full length adaptation, although Ken met with a tragic death before I completed the process.

Years later, after I had left the theater, by happenstance I learned that Mr. Solzhenitsyn lived in Cavendish, Vermont. At the time of discovering his whereabouts, the Soviet Union was in a state of collapse. I wrote a letter to Mr. Solzhenitsyn to ask for his permission to produce my adaptation. Mr. Solzhenitsyn declined my request.

I put my adaptation away along with the envelope typed out on a manual typewriter that he sent to me. As an aside, my heart stopped from the time I pulled the letter from my post office box until I got back to the lunchroom at work to open it. I had reached the pinnacle of my writing career by not just being rejected, but by being rejected by a Nobel Laureate.

Over the years I have shown the script to friends, but, according to Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s wishes, I have not taken any steps to stage a full adaptation of ‘Cancer Ward’, or to produce it. Nor do I seek to now. I simply want to post my original short adaptation, the mental impression from the scene shop of the Dallas Theater Center, as a book review for your enjoyment.

Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward – A Book Review