Silas Marner - Adaptations

Adaptations

• The actor Michael Williams played Marner in a Focus on the Family two-part adaptation for radio; this was to be the last acting role before his death.. The production also featured Edward Woodward, Jenny Agutter, Alex Jennings and Timothy Bateson and has subsequently been re-broadcast on BBC Radio 7.

• W. S. Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1876) takes its initial situation–the arrival of a child in a miser's life–from Silas Marner (as noted in the libretto), and has a somewhat similar ending, although the middle section is entirely new.

• The critically acclaimed 1954 Indian film Bangaru Papa, in Telugu, starring S. V. Ranga Rao and Krishna Kumari, is also based on award-winning short story writer Palagummi Padmaraju's loose adaptation of Silas Marner.

• The British composer John Joubert wrote an opera Silas Marner based on the novel in 1961.

• In 1981, the novel was adapted as Sukhdas in Hindi by the Indian writer Premchand.

• Ben Kingsley played Silas Marner in a 1985 BBC adaptation (broadcast in the U.S. by Masterpiece Theatre), with Patsy Kensit as the grown-up Eppie.

• The children's TV series Wishbone has an episode with an abridged adaptation.

• Steve Martin wrote, produced, and starred in a 1994 movie adaptation of the novel, titled A Simple Twist of Fate.

• The 2006 film Black Snake Moan is loosely based on the novel.

• A new stage version of "Silas Marner" will be premiered at the Grand Theatre Arts Wing, Swansea in September 2012. Written by Francis Hardy, it will be produced by Fluellen Theatre Company.