Having just completed our TNK revision, I see that we have come a long way. We started by deciding, that we would keep our adaptation of the text pretty similar to its original. The reason being that, we loved reading it the way it was. The Shakespearean English was hard at times but isn’t that the beauty of a Shakespeare play?

We initially started like that, but we found it too dry. We decided to brainstorm and decided to change it completely. A few members of my group thought that it was too late to make such drastic changes but we came to a conclusion and decided to take a risk. And now after completing what we thought was impossible in such a short period, we are all ecstatic!

When we decided on the superhero theme, I personally thought that TNK would lose its charm, but then again that’s what the editing project it all about, right? Giving the play our own touch. The hard part was connecting the dots. We decided on the roles each character would play, but it was hard to make the story flow.

I think our group did a good job, we didn’t argue much, we did have our own opinions but quite easily agreed with each other. We divided the work equally and then compiled it all together.

Another challenge was deciding which characters would be important and which ones we could do without. Instead of having 3 queens, we thought one would be enough! There’s no need for the two extra queens. They don’t really serve any purpose. In our movie, we don’t have any queens. We instead have a woman comes to Theseus to avenge the death of her husband, who was killed by the Creon of Thebes. Also, we decided to remove the songs, since they just took up too much space, and according to us weren’t really important.

Since we decided to make our adaptation into a movie, we also decided to do away with the jailer’s daughter, as we thought her presence would take up too much screen space. Due to this, we had to omit act 5 scene 2.

What I found most challenging was ending the scenes and the fight and that’s exactly what my group thought I would be really good at! It was really hard for me to think how a superhero would die. We’ve all read books and watched movies about superhero’s in which they defeat the evil and emerge victorious but here I had to kill Palamon (Pala-Man) who was actually a good guy (superhero)!

We decided that our end needed to be really innovative!

Arc-Man prayed to Mars to win the battle, Emilia prayed to Diana to marry the one who loved her best and Pala-Man prayed to Venus to marry Emilia.

In our adaptation, Arc-Man wins the battle and is ready to wed Emilia. However, the Gods summon him and make him realize that the only reason he wanted to win the battle was so that he wouldn’t lose his powers, and not because he wanted to marry Emilia.

Pala-Man on the other hand has lost the battle but still loves Emilia and says that he will love her forever. He doesn’t mind losing his superpowers, nor does he mind dying. All he cares about is Emilia and her happiness.

Arc-Man understands what the Gods are trying to tell him and agrees to go to heaven. He gives Pala-Man Emilia’s hand and goes away.

Basically everyone’s wishes came true!

Since we based it on superheroes and decided that our main audience would be kids interested in them, we decided to show that whatever we wish for comes true, only if our intentions are right and our heart is pure.

The Two Noble Kinsmen Project was challenging but so much fun. I learnt a lot from it. Working in a team, brainstorming, thinking out of the box, being innovative, feeling frustrated, feeling good, feeling as though I was part of the book, going back to reading superhero stories, fighting with each other, meeting in starbucks, facebook groups, taking breaks, getting to know my classmates better, it was ALL a wonderful experience!