![\"Philip](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cd7c21c57c0dc81722e9129b1ad7bfceff699759.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nThe latest of those adaptations is set to hit the Belvoir stage this month with a powerhouse team behind it. Director Simon Phillips, lighting designer Nick Schlieper and actor Toby Schmitz have collaborated on the adaptation, but that almost didn\u2019t come to be. The creative team had been considering simply staging Enda Walsh\u2019s version, and it was a conversation with Porter that set the Aussie team on a different track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were getting in touch with Max to see where he sat on that issue,\u201d Phillips says. \u201cAnd he was quick to discuss that actually Enda\u2019s adaptation was not the only adaptation. He said, look, other people have adapted it in different ways and why don\u2019t you have a bash?\u201d<\/p>\n
Have a bash they did, and while it might seem a near impossible feat to turn Porter\u2019s deeply literary, often abstract novella into a coherent play, Porter had a straightforward solution to that conundrum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m like, just take the book and get in a room and then start reading it and keep what you want and bin what you don\u2019t need. Then I think you\u2019ll find you\u2019ve got a play on your hands,\u201d says Porter. \u201cI think you have to give people permission to make it their own because otherwise it will just be trying to replicate a thing that already exists.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Philip Lynch, Toby Schmitz and Fraser Morrison in Belvoir\u2019s Grief is the Thing with Feathers.<\/p>\n
Phillips saw it as a blessing that Porter gave them such sweeping approval to adapt the book freely, allowing them to cut and rearrange sections for their theatrical production.<\/p>\n
Phillips and Schmitz are especially excited about cellist Freya Schack-Arnott performing live, bringing a powerful emotiveness to the production. \u201cThere\u2019s something about that particular instrument that speaks straight to the heart,\u201d Schmitz says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a human sound. It can speak about grief, about joy, in a tone that can sound like a sigh, a moan, a peal of laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schmitz plays opposite Philip Lynch and Fraser Morrison as the two boys, while he performs both the character of the grieving father and the by turns fierce, mischievous and nurturing Crow. As Porter puts it, \u201cCrow is an attempt to rewild the rituals of mourning, to get it out of the Church of England\u2019s grim residues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it\u2019s just a bit more of a job, acting. This is one of those rare diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Actor Toby Schmitz<\/p>\n
Phillips believes Schmitz is perfectly cast for the dual role, needing someone who can instantly pivot between cerebral refinement and visceral savagery. \u201cThe father operates in essentially an intellectual world, albeit struggling with intense grief. The crow is like a savage caregiver; he brings to the piece a danger and an unpredictability of mood. And those are right slap-bang in Toby\u2019s wheelhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Schmitz, it\u2019s a feast of a role that has him rushing to rehearsal each morning with a beam on his face. \u201cIt\u2019s rare to have such a thrilling thing to work on,\u201d Schmitz says. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s just a bit more of a job, acting. This is one of those rare diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
While Phillips muses that putting on something with the word grief in the title may strike fear into the hearts of theatre programmers who think attendees are only after a jolly night out, he believes audience members will appreciate both Porter\u2019s take on grieving and the life-affirming qualities of the work.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, [grief] is what it\u2019s about, but the way that it spins that subject matter around is so refreshing,\u201d Phillips says. \u201cI always find I\u2019m hard pushed to get to the end of it without feeling emotional in a euphoric way because there\u2019s light at the end of the tunnel, but still you never lose the sense of what these guys have lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, on the 10th anniversary of its publication, why does Porter think the unclassifiable Grief is the Thing with Feathers continues to resonate so profoundly worldwide?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something about the book that is like permission to feel mad and be hurting and go squawking and flapping your wings. In a world where we\u2019re not really encouraged to stand on the hilltop and scream our true feelings, maybe that\u2019s why it means something to people. Just the big, open-hearted yelp of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grief is the Thing with Feathers is at Belvoir St Theatre from July 26 to August 24.<\/p>\n