Hilary Mantel announces stage versions of Booker-winning novels
18th October 2012 - 11:24am
Hilary Mantel's Booker-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies are to be turned into stage plays, the author has announced.
Speaking backstage at the Man Booker ceremony on Tuesday night, Mantel, who became the first woman and the first British author to win the prestigious award twice, also said a BBC Two costume drama based on the books is in the works.
The stage adaptations of Mantel's critically acclaimed novels, which detail the life of Thomas Cromwell, have been written by Mike Poulton, a Royal Shakespeare Company collaborator whose 2005 adaptation of Schiller's Don Carlos, starring Derek Jacobi, won an Olivier Award.
The plan is to stage the two plays over the same season, Mantel explained to the Daily Telegraph.
'What we're hoping for is two plays - a 'Wolf Hall' play and a 'Bring up the Bodies' play - which, if you liked, you could see on consecutive evenings,' she said.
The RSC is 'not committed but certainly interested', the author added.
As for the BBC series, six episodes have been written by Peter Straughan, who co-wrote Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the film adapted from the John le Carré novel.
Mantel said she had even turned down a film deal in favour of the TV series. 'There were approaches about a cinema version but we felt that the complexity of the subject matter would be better served by a treatment in six episodes, perhaps later moving on to a second series,' she added.