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In this article, I discuss with Sarah Langford and Nicholas Cunha their new production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, an adaptation that brings together Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel and music from Gary Trousdale’s and Kirk Wise’s Disney classic (1996). A succession of adaptations, including hits like Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015) and Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast (2017) and the musicals Aladdin (2011), Newsies (2011) and Frozen (2017), has brought new life to Disney features. In this climate, the Toronto-based Wavestage Theatre Co.’s production of Hunchback offers a significant departure through its incorporation of the darker elements from Hugo’s original. This musical’s concerns regarding (in)tolerance, desire and diversity make it especially resonant. In what follows, Langford, Cunha and I discuss the process of producing this musical, how it reads Quasimodo and his love for Esmeralda and the Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo and how Hunchback speaks to today’s audiences.

In this interview, writer – director Peeter Rebane and I discuss his feature Firebird (2021). Set during the Cold War, the film centres on the real-life Sergey Fetisov’s (the film’s co-writer Tom Prior), Roman’s (Oleg Zagorodnii) and Luisa’s (Diana Pozharskaya) love triangle, exploring the decisions they make and their attendant consequences. Rebane and I examine the challenges of filming some extraordinary material – from underwater shots of the young Sergey (Romek Uibopuu) and Dima (Gregory Kibus) to shots of dozens and dozens of people seated in a concert hall, and from flying sequences to theatre ones – on an independent film budget, and how Rebane has retained integrity to the project without making compromises. We attend to the story on which Firebird was based; Rebane’s and Prior’s fidelity to their source material; how they expanded it to show, more prominently, the social and political context in which it is set; and how they altered Luisa’s character to show her perspective. We discuss Rebane’s extensive research into and recreation of the film’s world, which includes meeting with the real-life Sergey, to whom it is dedicated; casting it; and studying documentaries and photos to create costumes for its many actors and extras. Finally, Rebane and I explore the process of distributing Firebird during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has included screening the film at numerous events worldwide. This interview provides insight into both the making and the distribution of this ambitious film adaptation.

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