Whale Rider for Black Box

“It’s not his fault, it’s that I’m a girl. ” This is from the book Whale Rider. When I read this sentence, my heart actually hurt. This story has interesting plot, so when I read it, I already pictured how it is like on the stage. If I’m going to adapt the novel, I will highlight the relationship between Koro and Kahu, and whales will not appear in the play. 

Firstly, Koro’s attitude to Kahu is a big part in this story. At first, I thought this is an anti-feminist book, but actually this is a story says that girls can also be leaders. In my play, I would let Koro show up more often to highlight the change of his attitude. For example, I would set up a scene that Kahu is practicing diving or swimming, and Koro saw her. He rebuked her and walked away. Another scene is after Kahu recovers and becomes a new leader, Koro and she are playing in the sea. Koro kindly touches Kahu’s head an says that she makes a big progress. The extinct change actually emphasizes the main idea of the story. 

Secondly, the staging is the most exciting part to plan. If I am the director, I would like to have the village as the main stage. Consider the restriction in black box, I would only have two stages— one is the village, one is the ocean. I will set several houses on the stage to represent the village and use a shiny blue cloth to cover the floor and show the ocean scene. Also, I would let Uncle Rawiri narrate what happens in Australia rather that setting a real stage. There will be a telephone booth on the right stage, and Rawiri will call in that booth. Moreover, about the whales, I would not make real whales, instead, I would use projector to project the scene that whales strand. At the meantime, the main characters, such as Koro, stage left. It’s better to have an elevator or a ladder. The actors can stand on it as standing on a little hill. Koro will hold a telescope and tell people what to do. This avoids to make fake whales and highlight Koro as a leader. In addition, about costumes, I will put more attention on Rawiri. He is always a interesting character. He goes to Australia alone and meets a lot of friends. He is such a cool guy. Therefore, in this play, I will emphasize his adventurous personality through costumes. As the novel says, he has a cool motorcycle. Also, I will let him wear leather jacket, cowboy boots and ripped jeans. As he said in the book: “I’m always a cowboy.” Consequently, I design the stage and the play that can best suit for black box. 

In conclusion, it is not an easy task to adapt Whale Rider to a play, but this is fun. It is important to show the main idea, and I will achieve this by highlighting the relationship between Koro and Kahu. Also, it is important to adapt a realistic version for black box. To achieve this, I only have two stages, and people can easily change between scenes.