Dreaming Big
  • Home
    • Staff
    • Members Only
  • Contact
  • Our Books
    • Non Fiction
    • Fiction
    • Poetry
    • Children's Books
    • Audio Books
  • Coming Soon
  • Blog
  • Opportunities
    • Call For Submissions
    • Submissions Guidelines
    • FAQ
  • Gifts and More

Into the Woods: Why the Play will Always Be Better than the Movie, By Emelyn Ehrlich

11/27/2020

0 Comments

 
Into the Woods: Why the Play will Always Be Better than the Movie
By Emelyn Ehrlich

A baker and his wife want a child. A little girl in a red hood learns an important lesson about trusting strangers. A boy trades his cow for beans from a mysterious, haggard man. A kind woman runs away from her prince. A witch holds a girl with flowing hair captive in a tower. Not to mention, the two hot princes. Everyone wants something. Eventually, they will all have their wishes granted. But will they like what they get?

Into the Woods was released as a movie in 2014. However, long before that, Into the Woods was a play. You can find it on Amazon for $2.99 if you rent it, or $8.99 if you buy it. With the current pandemic, I, like everyone else, am struggling to continue finding things to do. One day, while doing homework, one of the songs from Into the Woods, “Agony,” kept playing in my head on repeat.

“Agony!
Although it’s different for each,
Always ten steps behind,
Always ten feet below
And she’s just out of reach!”

And so on. Thinking about the movie made me think about the play. That’s when it occurred to me:
The play is much better than the movie.

There is one, and only one, reason why this is the case. There is one element that’s just a little different in both mediums that makes the play that much better.

The narrator.

The movie’s narrator is the baker. He tells the story in a voiceover, even as things continue to happen to him within the story itself.

The play is a little different.

Instead, the narrator is someone completely separate from the cast of characters. He sits in a chair to the side, unobserved by all of the characters, neutral to the story itself.

At least, until the second act.

The second act is when the giant comes to kill everyone. The narrator continues telling the story, as the characters slowly crane their necks toward him, finally noticing him for the first time. The narrator explains his role.

The characters promptly sacrifice him to the giant.

No longer being guided by the narrator, the story goes off the rails. Anything can happen. The characters become lost and confused, instantly regretting sacrificing the narrator.

Eventually the baker steps in as the narrator as he tells the story to his child.

That’s why I always thought the play was so unique.

It starts out with an omniscient narrator there to guide the characters and assure them that everything goes to plan. However, when that narrator no longer exists, the characters are forced to take charge of their own stories and guide their own fates. They are forced to acknowledge that they are responsible for their actions, and no one else.

That is a lesson the movie simply cannot recreate without the additional “narrator” character.

None of this is to say, of course, that the movie isn’t good. I love the movie; it’s great.

That being said, the movie will never be able to measure up to the play.

The play possesses something that the movie will never be able to:  the characters’ sudden self-awareness that impacts them forever.
​
Edited by Ashley Ricks
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Challenge Participant
    Parajunkee Design
    I review for BookLook Bloggers
    Professional Reader
    Book Reviewer Sign Up

    1888PressRelease
    YA Bound Book Tours

Services

Ask A Therapist
Blog
Our Books
Coming Soon

Company

About Us
Staff
​

Support

Contact
FAQ

Find and follow us on social media 
© COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.