Adapting Solzhenitsyn by Chris Fillebrown

Between 1985 and 1990 I worked at the Dallas Theater Center. During that time, I had the privilege to attend Adrian Hall’s rehearsal process with the resident company as he adapted Robert Penn Warren’s ‘All The King’s Men’ for stage. One morning I was walking through the scene shop at the Arts District Theater on the north edge of downtown Dallas, Texas. In a moment, I saw Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Cancer Ward’ as a stage play in my mind’s eye. I had read ‘Cancer Ward’ in school. Halfway between the table saw and the tool room, I saw the picture of how I would present the novel on stage.

As soon as I got home from work that day, I took my copy of ‘Cancer Ward’ from my bookshelf, fired up my typewriter, and started to extract the passages required to capture my vision. The result was a short piece, not a full-length play, but the essential elements to present what I had in mind.

I showed the piece to Ken Bryant, 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 work on a full-length adaptation. Ken met 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 I discovered 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, to use the proceeds of the production to raise money for medical supplies for the former Soviet states. Mr. Solzhenitsyn declined my request.

Respecting his wishes, I put my adaptation away, along with the envelope and letter Mr. Solzhenitsyn sent to me – both typed on a manual typewriter. As an aside, my heart stopped when I pulled the letter from my post office box and figured out who it was from. My name and address were typed on the front of the envelope, but I could not tell who it was from. I turned it over. Typed on the back of the envelope was his name. My heart stopped and did not start to beat again until I sat at a table in the lunchroom of the office where I worked to open it. And then my heart was pounding as I unfolded the letter and read it. I had reached the pinnacle of my writing career. Not only had I been rejected, but I had been rejected by a Nobel Laureate.

Over the years I have shared the script with friends. According to Mr. Solzhenitsyn’s wishes, I have not taken any steps to stage my full adaptation of ‘Cancer Ward’, nor do I seek to now. I simply want to post my original short adaptation, my mental impression from that morning in the scene shop, as a book review for your enjoyment.

Chris Fillebrown

Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn’s Cancer Ward – a book review