story by Jacob Zlomke | videos and photos by Mike Machian
“Come play with me, forever. And forever. And forever.”
The iconic invitation from Stephen King’s The Shining reverberates ghoulishly in a child’s voice through the main room of Omaha’s 88-year-old Sokol Auditorium on Tuesday evening.
The sound cuts abruptly before echoes of the final syllables fade from speakers, left to hang in ears.
Near stage-right, a crewmember stains wood panelling to look aged.
Again: “Come play with me, forever. And forever. And forever.”
Jack Torrance (Marc Erickson), with wife Wendy (Christina Rohling) and son Danny (Christopher Levering) in happier times.
Before Tuesday night’s rehearsal for The Shining, A Play, which will have a three show-run this weekend at Sokol Auditorium — Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night — a crew member passes out prepackaged snacks.
Someone approaches Jason Levering, director and cowriter, to let him know about the ticket situation. Saturday night is sold out, there are 15 or so tickets left for Friday night. (Remaining tickets are available here.)
Levering, of course, is pleased. The play was conceived after Benson Theatre’s Omaha Gives campaign last May as another fundraiser toward restoring the theater where Levering acts as artistic director. Tickets sold translates to flooring, seating and plumbing for the building that, while listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is considered demolished, or beyond use.
With only three rehearsals left before opening night, the set still bare-bones in its installation and sound cues being straightened out, Levering seems relaxed. He chalks his demeanor up to his faith in cast and crew. But opening night isn’t Levering’s first hurdle in the play’s journey to the stage. It’s probably not even the highest, and so far, he’s cleared the others with ease.
First, he had to obtain rights. Levering, a self-described Stephen King fan, sent an email to the author on the last Friday in May 2013, asking for the rights to produce a play based on his book. He told him about the efforts in Omaha to restore the Benson Theatre, but said he expected to receive a “no” from King, if any response at all.
The following Monday, King’s agent replied, saying King would like to give the group the choice to adapt his novel with limited option, meaning a limited amount of performance, no broadcast and no script-publishing.
Levering said King asked for final approval on the script, the cast and the director, all of which were later approved without protest.
“The big question after you get to all of that is ‘how much is this going to cost us to do?’ and the answer was zero, nothing. He just wanted to help out, which was really heartwarming.”
Technically, King charged the group $1 to adapt his book in the tradition of his Dollar Baby project where beginning filmmakers can adapt a short story of his for one dollar. Levering says he sent a check for the amount, and it was returned uncashed.
“I’ve still got that check. I’m going to frame it on my wall in the office at the Benson Theatre once we open,” Levering says.
With rights secured, Levering faced the challenge of adapting a book clocking in at about 200,000 words and nearly 700 pages (in paperback) to a stage performance. He made the book’s architecture an ally.
“It’s a big, sprawling book, but the way it’s laid out, all the bare bones of doing a play are right there. It’s just a matter of stripping that stuff away and massaging it into play format.”
Levering says that, as he researched the book, he found King had envisioned it similar to the five-act dramatic tragedy, the five parts of the book each lending itself to an act, hence the five-act structure of his adaptation.
Jason Levering, director of “The Shining, A Play”
Structure aside, though, The Shining, as a novel, employs tools available almost exclusively to prose: omniscient, third-person narration, inner-monologues, detailed descriptions of setting. A work of fiction has the freedom and space to describe physical and emotional states in a way that even the most naturalistic plays can only hope to impress upon an audience. Given the limitations of performative space and that any crucial piece of information must either be shown or stated by a character, the play must rely heavily on exhibition.
An unfalteringly faithful stage adaptation of The Shining, a category in which Levering’s play should be counted, still cannot capture the disruptive parenthetical thoughts and psychic interruptions that characterize the novel version of exposition of Danny Torrance, the five-year old son of Jack and Wendy with supernatural powers.
“You see something in your head when you’re reading a book. Pulling that out of your head and putting it on stage and making it make sense is a little bit different. That part’s been a little tricky and complicated as we work through things, but we’re there,” Levering says. “We’ve made it.”
His confidence, no doubt, is bolstered by the choices Levering and co-writer/assistant director Aaron Sailors made in determining what could be left to suggestion through acting and what deserved to be stated outright. Those choices, after all, garnered the two across-the-board approval from King.
Wendy Torrance (Christina Rohling) finds her husband Jack (Marc Erickson) has fallen off the wagon.
The simple approach is to take unspoken words from the book and give them as lines to a character. Levering says that’s the case for several instances of Jack Torrance’s thoughts as he descends into madness. Otherwise, it’s left to the actors to characterize and convey moments. For a director, that takes confidence in cast, which Levering has.
Levering recalls Jack’s excedrin habit, a leftover tick from the recovering alcoholic’s drinking days.
“It’s not something that we wrote into the script, like specific parts. But Marc (Erickson), our lead, knew about it. So he’s incorporated that part. He’ll pull out that excedrin and take the pill whenever he feels the moment’s right.”
Levering, who makes his directorial debut with The Shining, entered the theater world through acting, which he says informs his approach as a director. As an actor, he says he appreciates a director who allows actors to find their way into the characters. Through the first weeks of rehearsal, he’ll give actors rough outlines of a scene’s beginning and end, and let them discover their characters on their own.
“I could have said nothing and I think they would have figured it out. I have immense faith in my cast,” Levering says. “I still have moments where I’m seeing new things and I get emotional.”
Jack Torrance (Marc Erickson) is served a drink by the ghostly bartender (Garett Sheeks) at the Overlook Hotel.
For peers, Levering, Sailors and crew join only two other adaptations of the work: a 1997 television miniseries written by King, and the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film. Undeniably, Kubrick’s interpretation and Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance reside in the pantheon of both pop culture and film criticism.
But Kubrick’s film takes so many artistic and directional liberties with King’s novel that both have a unique identity. Both rely on the same narrative skeleton, but Kubrick fills his out with deeply layered social commentary, while the novel’s muscle is built on personal and psychological development.
Notably, King has criticized Kubrick’s interpretation since its release, especially Wendy’s portrayal as passive and submissive. Knowing that, as a fan of King’s work, Levering says he wants to create the best possible rendition of King’s book possible.
Still, even with the goal of a faithful adaptation of King’s work firmly in mind, Kubrick’s masterpiece and Nicholson’s iconic performance loom over his shoulder. Against Nicholson’s Torrance, among the most salient film characters of all time, denying the film would be futile.
Instead, Levering says he watched the film before delving into the book in order to be aware of what the film does and how it differs from the book.
“That was a thing for us — to watch it, then ignore it.”
Even for Erickson, who, according to Levering, has never seen the film, ignorance is near impossible.
“It’s pop culture. Everyone knows the scene where Jack breaks through the door with the axe and says ‘Here’s Johnny,’” Levering says. “But [Erickson] has never seen the film and he’s stayed away from it because he wants to do King’s.”
Levering admits audiences might come expecting to see a reiteration of Kubrick’s adaptation, but he feels comfortable with the challenge.
“They’re going to get a completely different show. Hopefully they’ll be pleasantly surprised.”
After the show’s weekend run, given contractual stipulations, The Shining, A Play will come to an end. Months of research and writing, audition and rehearsals, set design and fundraising will be firmly punctuated with a closing curtain and a final bow.
Levering says he’s been putting off thinking about that moment, when all is said and done. He’s considered asking for a revival at the Benson Theatre once it’s operational, and he holds on to another small hope that maybe this weekend won’t be the show’s end.
“I keep hoping Mr. King will show up and want to put some money toward us and say ‘Hey, let’s take this to New York.’ But that’s just a wild dream.”
Improbable, yes. But perhaps not as wild as Levering would have once thought. After all, securing rights to adapt The Shining felt like a similar shot in the dark.
“We’ve been working on trying to get him out here. We’ve sent him invite after invite, he’s a very busy person. He’s always in something or doing something or writing something,” Levering says. “The last care package that we sent him was very heartfelt, very passionate, very ‘thank you very much for what you’ve done for us.’”
Levering says King’s assistant has thus far been expedient in responses from King.
“After the last one, we haven’t heard a thing. We’ll see what happens.”