View all newsletters
Sign up to our newsletters

Support 110 years of independent journalism.

  1. Culture
  2. Theatre
4 July 2018

Fun Home at the Young Vic: exuberant, moving and urgent

Unavoidably, some of the subtleties of the original text are lost – but the shift brings positives too.

By Anna Leszkiewicz

The story of a young butch lesbian, her relationship with her gay, closeted, funeral director father, and his eventual suicide doesn’t sound like the most typical topic for a graphic novel; even less so a vibrant Broadway musical. But Alison Bechdel’s genre-defining 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home (which takes its name from the childhood nickname Bechdel and her siblings gave to their dad’s funeral home) was critically adored, and in 2013, adapted into a funny, playful, and, yes, at times sad piece of musical theatre. It finally makes its UK debut this summer at London’s Young Vic theatre, directed by the show’s original Broadway director, Sam Gold.

The memoir is an astonishing feat of literature: nuanced, dense, self-consciously playing with the tension between image and word. Unavoidably, some of the subtleties of the original text are lost in this dramatization, both thanks to the formal constraints of the stage and the short run time (an hour and 40 minutes without interval). The musical translates the memoir’s non-linear structure and meta-narratives into a series of vignettes. Three versions of Alison take stage, sometimes simultaneously: a young Alison desperate for her father’s approval (Brooke Haynes), a teenage Alison discovering her sexuality at college (Eleanor Kane), and the adult Alison (Kaisa Hammarlund), watching these younger selves play out her memories, trying to draw them and caption the action. The literary allusions that form so much of Bechdel’s memoir are cut.

But there are things gained, too, in this new form. Moments of comedy are bolder and more effervescent, such as when the child Alison and her young brothers cheerfully deliver a bright Motown-style musical advert for the funeral home – including lines like, “This is called an aneurysm hook!” Longing and desire similarly come to life: in the sweet “Ring of Keys”, the unashamedly silly “Changing My Major” (where the college student Alison sings, “I’m changing my major to Sex With Joan, with a minor in Kissing Joan”), and the aching musical motifs of Alison’s dad (Zubin Varla).

Where the graphic novel slowly builds repeated images and references to great literature until a perfect web emerges from desperate threads, giving Alison and her father’s story a sense of cosmic inevitability, the musical suggests that life is messier, more arbitrary. The musical takes a different approach to the memoir: less dense, more exuberant. But it is just as urgent. 

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU

Content from our partners
Development finance reform: the key to climate action
Individually rare, collectively common – how do we transform the lives of people with rare diseases?
Future proofing the NHS

This article appears in the 04 Jul 2018 issue of the New Statesman, England in the age of Brexit

Select and enter your email address Your weekly guide to the best writing on ideas, politics, books and culture every Saturday. The best way to sign up for The Saturday Read is via saturdayread.substack.com The New Statesman's quick and essential guide to the news and politics of the day. The best way to sign up for Morning Call is via morningcall.substack.com Our Thursday ideas newsletter, delving into philosophy, criticism, and intellectual history. The best way to sign up for The Salvo is via thesalvo.substack.com Stay up to date with NS events, subscription offers & updates. Weekly analysis of the shift to a new economy from the New Statesman's Spotlight on Policy team. The best way to sign up for The Green Transition is via spotlightonpolicy.substack.com
  • Administration / Office
  • Arts and Culture
  • Board Member
  • Business / Corporate Services
  • Client / Customer Services
  • Communications
  • Construction, Works, Engineering
  • Education, Curriculum and Teaching
  • Environment, Conservation and NRM
  • Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance
  • Finance Management
  • Health - Medical and Nursing Management
  • HR, Training and Organisational Development
  • Information and Communications Technology
  • Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives
  • Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities
  • Legal Officers and Practitioners
  • Librarians and Library Management
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • OH&S, Risk Management
  • Operations Management
  • Planning, Policy, Strategy
  • Printing, Design, Publishing, Web
  • Projects, Programs and Advisors
  • Property, Assets and Fleet Management
  • Public Relations and Media
  • Purchasing and Procurement
  • Quality Management
  • Science and Technical Research and Development
  • Security and Law Enforcement
  • Service Delivery
  • Sport and Recreation
  • Travel, Accommodation, Tourism
  • Wellbeing, Community / Social Services
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
THANK YOU