Photo Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
"That'll be left to your imagination," says Randall Arney, the Geffen's artistic direct. '"It's still scary as hell."
The Geffen's version, which will be the first stage adaptation of the story that documents a 10-year-old girl's possession and redemption, is sourced from William Peter Blatty's novel. "It was my Bible, in a way," says John Pielmeier, the playwright who adapted the novel for the stage.
Pielmeier's script was borne from a first draft "vomited" from his brain over 10 days. “I’ve never written anything that fast before,” he told the audience after a screening of the film version Tuesday at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. “I was just so jazzed by this book. I just started exploding with ideas.”
Pielmeier's words will come alive when the Geffen's curtain is raised in June. In the meantime, casting for the play’s nine roles is still underway. The part of Regan MacNeil, the little girl who becomes possessed, has been narrowed down to a few adult, but child-like, actresses, Arney says. Whoever gets the role, she'll have to be "a bit of a contortionist," he adds.
While the casting gets finalized, Arney says the set is basically finished. It has a "very Catholic" theme, he says. "You feel, literally, like you're in a church."
That drew a sharp response from William Friedkin, who directed the Oscar-nominated film. "What happens if you come in there and you're Jewish?" Friedkin said jokingly after the screening.
Friedkin, who also directed "The French Connection,” says the play's in good hands. It's being paired with music by British composer Sir John Tavener and will be directed by John Doyle, who mounted an acclaimed Broadway revival of “Sweeney Todd.”
The lack of special effects won't be the only thing different about the stage version. Pielmeier says he's pushed the female lead character, Chris MacNeil, into a darker place. He's expanded on the suggestion she had another child, a son, whom she lost. In Pielmeier's version, this is "something that is haunting her life."
Moreover, the part of Burke Dennings, the director of the film featuring the MacNeil character, has been expanded to a "major part," Pielmeier told Back Stage. Oh, and the demonic voice that’s possessing Regan? It's not just a voice anymore. "You'll see the physical presence of an actor or actors doing the demon lines," he says.
Arney said he's hopeful the Geffen's production could end up touring. "The creation of new work is becoming more and more central to what we do," he says.
