The Gormenghast Trilogy 1: Titus Groan Mervyn Peake
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The 50th production of William Head on Stage's [WHoS] thirty year history is an adaptation of British novelist Mervyn Peake's trilogy Gormenghast. The Gormenghast Trilogy (of which I have only read the first two books) will surely not appeal to everyone. Gormenghast's location in time and space is never known and essentially irrelevant. It is a giant, ponderous machine ticking The tale opens with the birth of the newest Lord of Groan, Titus, who remains an infant throughout the first novel. What can you tell us about this novel and its move from book to stage? Writer Mervyn Peake was When young Titus Groan is born as the 77th Earl of Gormenghast, things do begin to change as he grows up to be a young man who rejects the mindless rituals of the castle and longs for freedom beyond the castle walls. The one my readers are more likely to have seen was used by the quirky author Mervyn Peake to raise the curtain on his very weird gothic fantasy, Titus Groan, the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy. I recently picked up a copy of Peake's Titus Groan at a used book sale. Nevertheless, I volunteered to do this, and cannot just go gentle into that good night. Who are in turn ruled by tradition.