'Vertigo' to be performed on stage at UNC

The thought of transforming a cinematic masterpiece into a live stage performance is a daunting task, but Lucius Robinson takes it all in stride.

A senior in the Department of Communication Studies, Robinson is responsible for taking Alfred Hitchcock’s famous flick “Vertigo” and adapting it to the small stage for the department’s second performance of the year.

Robinson said he had performed a small portion of the movie for a previous class project and thought it would be interesting to convert the entire film for another class, taught by director Joseph Megel.

“I’ve always been fond of the movie,” Robinson said. “We had to choose one for a project, and I thought this would be a cool four-person play.”

Megel, artist-in-residence and professor, started working with Robinson on the adaptation last year and is directing the performance. He said the work is based off of both the 1958 movie and the original book.

“(Lucius) started with the idea that he really wanted to capture images and ideas that were in the movie, and I sort of guided him back to the book to get some of the original inspiration and meaning of the story,” Megel said.

The film “Vertigo” centers on the story of a retired police detective named Scottie Ferguson, who is afraid of heights. He is hired to follow an acquaintance’s wife, Gavin Elster, who is acting unusually.

Scottie, portrayed in the play by Robinson, is swept into a psychological maze as he follows — and falls in love with — the depressed and haunted Madeline Elster, played by graduate student Marie Garlock.

The intriguing setting isn’t “Vertigo’s” only appeal. Garlock said the play is also designed to prompt the audience to ask questions.

“We can ask ourselves how we can refrain from facing our own reality, what are we limited by, what are we controlled by, and what images we feel we need to adhere to today,” she said.

Taking the work from the silver screen to the stage has not been easy. One of the biggest additions to the adaptation is the use of an ensemble, Megel said.

“The movement work that is being done with the ensemble is perhaps as complicated as I’ve ever directed,” said Megel.

To echo the point of view of Hitchcock’s film, the stage performance relies on an ensemble cast to bring clarity to scenes that would otherwise be difficult to render. The group creates sounds and makes smooth transitions.

“They function as a group of people whose main objective is that they delight in creating fiction,” said Robinson.

“The main jump has been figuring out how to push the narrative forward without the camera.”

The production’s opening defies their obstacles.

“By working with movement coordinators, our set designer Rob Hamilton, directors, playwright, and ensemble, things came together and we created something that I think is really interesting,” said Megel.

Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.