Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials (Stage Version)

HIS DARK
MATERIALS Based on the novels by Philip Pullman Adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright NICK HERN BOOKS London www.nickhernbooks.co.uk ContentsIntroduction When Nicholas Hytner asked me to adapt His Dark Materials for the National Theatre, I said yes without a moments hesitation. The first reason was that I had read the books and loved them. The second was that the dates were fixed, the show would happen whether I agreed to be part of it or not, and I thought it would be deeply pathetic to watch the train take off on its fabulous journey when I could be on it. The third reason was the nature of the work that I would be doing. Playwrights like to think that theyre the sole author of everything that happens onstage. But in this case I knew that I would be sharing the drivers compartment with many others.

Like the book-writer of a big musical, or the screenwriter of a film, I would be referring constantly to the designer, the movement director, the composer and every other member of the creative team. I would be working with the producer and the director, both united in the form of Nick Hytner. And I would be working with Philip Pullman. All this was very attractive. On 2 March 2004, Philip, Nick and I sat in the Olivier Theatre watching the last performance of the first run. It went incredibly well and we were all very proud of it.

And it occurred to all three of us that, since we knew the show would come back at the end of the year, we had the chance to bring it even closer to the impossible ideal that we had set ourselves when the project began. This is a luxury that one gets very rarely, and it seemed crazy not to take advantage of it. It took about five minutes in the Green Room afterwards for us to say to each other, in general terms, what we thought was needed. I outlined the changes that I wanted to make to the script, as well as one or two others that I wanted to do but wasnt sure how. Philip promised to help by putting his thoughts in writing, which he duly did in a long, appreciative and thoughtful letter. Nick, like every great producer, gave me inspiration, responsibility and the illusion of freedom.

This revised play-script is the result. It contains a lot of small changes, a few middling ones and one big piece of restructuring in the last half-hour or so. My hopes for it are simple ones: that the story is thrilling, that the great issues that it tackles will excite the imagination of a young audience and that Philip Pullmans central themes of innocence and experience, child-hood and adulthood, belief and rationality, will stand out clearly. Out of the whole experience of the shows creation, these are some of the moments that I will never forget: The moment at home when I stole a speech from a delightful character in Northern Lights named Ma Costa, and gave it to Mrs Coulter: this is when the play began to breathe. The workshop at the National Theatre Studio when Nick turned to me, his eyes ablaze with a kind of white, unearthly energy, and said of the script, Its just not working. The first daemons being unpacked from Michael Currys Oregon workshop.

The way their personalities subverted the room, like ventriloquists dummies out of a Hoffman story. The first bear coming to life. The first time Lyras Death appeared. Walking into a rehearsal room, finding it packed with people and being reminded of the Israelites amassed on the shore of the Red Sea, waiting for the miracle that would take them across it. The morning that Giles Cadle showed the cast how the set would work, to half-comprehending wonderment. The first time Jonathan Dove played the music, and the emotional power of the story felt newly unleashed.

The first time that we got to the end. And on and on, through previews and opening-day until, finally, a moment in the summer of 2004, the weekend before I was about to deliver this revised script. There was a theme in the play it doesnt matter which that I had always known was important but that I had never known how to make sense of. On that Sunday afternoon, a speech arrived from nowhere that gave it meaning. I looked back in my diary and discovered that it was exactly two years to the day since I had started writing: two years of synopses, drafts, workshops and the most exciting rehearsals, because the most dangerous ones, that I had ever experienced. I was helped and supported for every second of that time.

By Nick Hytner, with his optimism, his grasp of the big issues and his ferocious analysis. By the many actors who took part in workshops, rehearsals and performance. Nick Drake read the script in several drafts and gave me excellent advice. Andrew Steggall helped me by compiling a vast concordance of phrases, descriptions and references from the books, and he also came up with some radical thoughts, at least one of which plays a big part in the show. Finally, Philip Pullman has been supportive at every stage, from the moment that Nick Hytner and I first met him. It must be strange to see your writing being taken over to fit the demands of a different medium.

But Philip has always been first to say, Dont worry! The books are one thing, and this is another. And his advice has always led us closer towards a piece of theatre that stands up in its own right, not as a shadow of his stupendous novels. Nicholas Wright
November 2004His Dark Materials was first performed in the Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London, on 3 January 2004 (previews from 6 December 2003), with the following cast: Part One

Lyra Belacqua	Anna Maxwell Martin
Pantalaimon, her daemon	Samuel Barnett
Will Parry	Dominic Cooper

OXFORD
Master of Jordan College	Patrick Godfrey
Professor Hopcraft	Iain Mitchell
Professor of Astronomy	Andrew Westfield
Lord Asriel	Timothy Dalton
Stelmaria, his daemon	Emily Mytton
Thorold, his manservant	Nick Sampson
Mrs Coulter	Patricia Hodge
The Golden Monkey, her daemon	Ben Wright
Fra Pavel, an emissary from Geneva	Tim McMullan
Cawson, Steward of Jordan College	Daniel Tuite
Mrs Lonsdale, housekeeper	Katy Odey
Roger Parslow, a kitchen boy	Russell Tovey
Salcilia, his daemon	Helena Lymbery
Billy Costa	Jamie Harding
Tony Costa	Richard Youman

LONDON
Lord Boreal	John Carlisle
Macaw-Lady	Helen Murton
Retired General	Nick Sampson
Daisy	Helen Murton
Jessie	Katie Wimpenny
Lily	Inika Leigh Wright
Stallholder	Chris Larkin
Top-hatted man	Iain Mitchell
Ben, Tony Costas friend	Jason Thorpe

TROLLESUND
John Faa, Lord of the Western gyptians	Stephen Greif
Farder Coram	Patrick Godfrey
Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear	Danny Sapani
Bear-keeper	Akbar Kurtha
Mayor	Daniel Tuite
Kaisa, Serafinas daemon