Twin brothers are evacuated to their grandmother’s farm during World War II and tell of their shared experiences through a written record of their everyday lives.
That’s the basis for The Notebook, the award-winning1988 novel by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof, which inspired a new theatrical work by Sheffield-based company Forced Entertainment that is coming to Huddersfield on Thursday, October 29.
Performers Richard Lowdon and Robin Arthur are the two boys as they make the journey from childhood to adolescence against a backdrop of war-torn Central Europe descending into vice, cruelty and opportunism.
Richard explains: “The story has this tremendous kind of fairy tale quality because the war is never explicitly mentioned, or the country they live in. Nobody has a name and the story is written from the kids’ point of view. I read the book in the early 90s and found it remarkable because of the pared-down writing.
“Agota Kristof fled Hungary in 1956 and settled in Switzerland. She wrote in French, which may account for the simplicity - she was not writing in her first language.”
Forced Entertainment, which performs both in the UK and at European venues, has adapted the work.
Richard said: “We were interested in speaking in unison and were looking around for something to try and I remembered the book.
“We thought about doing the entire book in unison but it took more than four hours, so we edited it and now it’s two hours.
“Some parts are spoken in unison but not all, just when it’s the two of them against the rest of the world.”
The show is at the Lawrence Batley Theatre at 7.30pm. Tickets are from £7 to £14 from www.thelbt.org.uk or 01484 430528.
