New Light Through Old Windows – Modern Literary Adaptation, from a Writer’s Perspective

In this lecture, playwright and writer Hannah Khalil challenges the idea that adaptation is easy or merely a commercial strategy, arguing instead that it is complex and creatively liberating.

Drawing on examples from other writers, as well as four of her own adaptations (The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson, Shakespeare and Fletcher’s King Henry VIII, Arabian Nights and Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle) she shows how literary adaptation allows playwrights to reimagine outdated themes and address contemporary issues within familiar stories.