Where Adam Stood (1976) by Dennis Potter
23.3 هزار بار بازدید -
12 سال پیش
-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075425/
In the wake of the rise of Creationism*, this quiet, calm and extremely effective work by television master-scribe Dennis Potter should be thought of as especially relevant.
*I read an article recently which said that some children are being taught that the Loch Ness Monster disproves the existence of evolution, as it means that dinosaurs exist concurrently with humans, like on The Flintstones.
Where Adam Stood, a TV Play by Dennis Potter
Synopsis
Although credited with being "Based on 'Father and Son' by Edmund Gosse, Where Adam Stood is, in Potter's own words, "in no sense an adaptation. ... I only took a few pages from it." (Fuller 1993:52)
Parallel to the Gosse memoir of his father, though, the play deals simultaneously with the relationship between a fundamentalist father and his young, motherless son, as well as, on a much broader canvas, with the collision between fundamentalist religion and the beginnings of a challenging scientific paradigm which appeared to contradict it - Darwin's theory of natural selection and evolution.... FULL PLOT
Comments by Potter
As John Cook explains, "the proof of Darwin's theories is ironically to be found in the home of one of its staunchest enemies." (Cook 1995: 87) Edmund survives the bleak and dogmatic force of his father's belief system because he utilises it to gain what he seeks, turning Philip Gosse's own reliance on the revelatory word of God into a defeat for him. As Potter himself explained,
"When the father says to the child , 'Why don't you ask God if you can have the sailing ship?' he thinks his power is so great that the child will obediently say God told him he couldn't have it. But the father has got mixed up over what is God, what is habit and what is parental authority, and the boy's first act of rebellion is deep within the father's religious language. ... The shape of the little drama is exactly like the Garden of Eden, and the boy's final self-knowledge is like Adam and Eve's self-knowledge. It's the boy who draws the line, it's the boy who stops the father coming into his room to talk by putting a chair against the door." [Fuller, 1993: 55]
Potter was pleased with what he had achieved in Where Adam Stood. When Fuller asks, "Is there a piece you favour among your plays ..., Potter replies,
"In terms of lucidity of a difficult argument ... it would be Where Adam Stood."
"It's probably the most complicated and probably the best of all the things, in that sense, that I've tried to do. It's the most complete statement of all those difficulties that yet remain very simple.'
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Son of Man (1969): Video
Brimstone & Treacle (1976) : Video
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In the wake of the rise of Creationism*, this quiet, calm and extremely effective work by television master-scribe Dennis Potter should be thought of as especially relevant.
*I read an article recently which said that some children are being taught that the Loch Ness Monster disproves the existence of evolution, as it means that dinosaurs exist concurrently with humans, like on The Flintstones.
Where Adam Stood, a TV Play by Dennis Potter
Synopsis
Although credited with being "Based on 'Father and Son' by Edmund Gosse, Where Adam Stood is, in Potter's own words, "in no sense an adaptation. ... I only took a few pages from it." (Fuller 1993:52)
Parallel to the Gosse memoir of his father, though, the play deals simultaneously with the relationship between a fundamentalist father and his young, motherless son, as well as, on a much broader canvas, with the collision between fundamentalist religion and the beginnings of a challenging scientific paradigm which appeared to contradict it - Darwin's theory of natural selection and evolution.... FULL PLOT
Comments by Potter
As John Cook explains, "the proof of Darwin's theories is ironically to be found in the home of one of its staunchest enemies." (Cook 1995: 87) Edmund survives the bleak and dogmatic force of his father's belief system because he utilises it to gain what he seeks, turning Philip Gosse's own reliance on the revelatory word of God into a defeat for him. As Potter himself explained,
"When the father says to the child , 'Why don't you ask God if you can have the sailing ship?' he thinks his power is so great that the child will obediently say God told him he couldn't have it. But the father has got mixed up over what is God, what is habit and what is parental authority, and the boy's first act of rebellion is deep within the father's religious language. ... The shape of the little drama is exactly like the Garden of Eden, and the boy's final self-knowledge is like Adam and Eve's self-knowledge. It's the boy who draws the line, it's the boy who stops the father coming into his room to talk by putting a chair against the door." [Fuller, 1993: 55]
Potter was pleased with what he had achieved in Where Adam Stood. When Fuller asks, "Is there a piece you favour among your plays ..., Potter replies,
"In terms of lucidity of a difficult argument ... it would be Where Adam Stood."
"It's probably the most complicated and probably the best of all the things, in that sense, that I've tried to do. It's the most complete statement of all those difficulties that yet remain very simple.'
Other Potter Plays I've Uploaded:
Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965): Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965) by Denn...
Vote Vote Vote For Nigel Barton (1965): Vote Vote Vote for Nigel Barton (1965...
Son of Man (1969): Video
Brimstone & Treacle (1976) : Video
Blade on the Feather (1980): Blade on the Feather (1980) by Dennis...
12 سال پیش
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