Carver On The Floorboards

In London, the show goes on: a theatrical adaptation of five of Raymond Carver's short stories at the Arcola Theatre is winning praise. Says The Telegraph about 'Carver' by the 75-year-old William Gaskill:

"Raymond Carver's prose is so well-crafted, so nuanced, that it takes a very shrewd soul to dramatise his short stories without losing something of their essence. Robert Altman managed it with his 1993 film Short Cuts, and now Bill Gaskill, a former artistic director of the Royal Court, pulls off the task in triumphant style."

This Is London chips in:

"[Gaskill's] dramatisation and direction of five short stories by that American master, Raymond Carver, makes an oddly fascinating and unusual night out. The performances are all top notch...Gaskill unerringly catches Carver's elusive melancholia and his bone-dry comedy."

And The Financial Times adds:

"Gaskill rightly feels that Carver had some of Chekhov's insight into 'the lives of undistinguished people, their aspirations and passions'. Here, there is none of the cityscape of Short Cuts; and eventually the emphasis is on autobiographical suggestions, some of them highly ironic, about how people react to a writer...What beautifully distinguishes Gaskill's direction is his sense of space. Staged with the audience on three sides, each story occurs with multiple focal points, and with marvellous effects of distance."