‘Social Realism’ and Plays Based on other Issues

Abstract

We now come to a set of plays that raise social and moral issues without being overtly or predominantly political. These, too, operate within the logic of the known and the recognisable. This is true even when the setting is exotic and the action removed from the everyday behaviour of modern children, as is the case with a number of adaptations of children’s books, such as The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, Cider with Rosie and Treasure Island. Treasure Island has already been referred to in connection with Peter Pan, where Stevenson’s full-blooded pirates were put to the service of harmless fantasy. Treasure Island does not set out to explore moral issues but the potential for such a venture is there in the book. It is up to the adaptor either to take up the challenge or settle for cashing in on a good, romantic story.