‘Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.” The opening of Albert Camus’s 1942 novel L’Etranger is one of the most instantly recognisable in modern European fiction. Ben Okri’s adaptation begins with the same lines and holds faithfully to Camus’s voice and vision, lifting swathes of the novel almost untouched.
Okri seems to refrain from adding a contemporary political edge, perhaps to honour the original while leaving its colonial sensibility open for modern audiences to pick up. The downside is that it feels like an abridged version, rather than an adaptation with its own distinct vision.
Sam Frenchum plays Meursault, a French Algerian living in Algiers, dressed as the consummate Frenchman, in a three-piece suit. Frenchum has an entertaining, dead-eyed ennui as he recounts his murder of an Arab, his trial, his lack of remorse and his existential philosophy. The Arab he kills appears on the side of the stage in the second part but is not a haunting presence, merely a distantly looming generic figure, forever designated to otherness.
Absurdist physical humour is brought to the fore in Abbey Wright’s production: Meursault’s neighbour, Salamano (Uri Roodner), staggers around with a mop for a dog. Characters move on and off the stage with the synchronised movements of a sinister musical, and the lighting is eloquent: Meursault is spotlit in intense, interrogative moments, while a beach scene is created simply but sensationally with a golden light cast across the empty stage.
With a set designed by Richard Hudson, there is a noirish effect with long shadows, swirling cigarette smoke, and hunched figures in grey. Some scenes are performed in slow motion, others turn into frozen tableaux.
For those seeking a more critical response to Camus’ story, there is a breathtaking six-minute film in the basement of the theatre called The Insider, written by Okri and directed by Mitra Tabrizian, which tells the story from the dead Arab’s perspective, and is the perfect accompanying piece.
The Outsider is at Print Room at the Coronet, London, until 20 October
