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EE: Turn a Shakespeare play, Dickens novel, fairytale or Greek myth into a storyline. |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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EE: Turn a Shakespeare play, Dickens novel, fairytale or Greek myth into a storyline.
I was on the bus last night and spoke to a soap journalist and we talked about soaps (obvs). This journalist was saying that to write in soaps, it's not about whether you know everything about a certain soap but about storytelling and ow you convey ideas through the plot. As a result, you have storylines that mimic Greek myths, fairytales, Dickens novels and Shakespeare (for eg. Linda's rape or aspects of the Lucy Beale murder storyline). So here's a challenge for fellow fans: see if you can do it. Turn a Shakespeare play or a Dickens novel or a Greek/Roman myth or a fairytale into an EastEnders storyline.
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#2 |
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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Come on guys, I thought there were loads of imaginative minds out there!
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 568
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A Dickens novel? That would keep them in stories for five years!
I can see how Greek Myth could work. We could have a minotaur: Babe, the old witch, spurned by her family, puts a spell on Linda to make her fall in love with a bull who was found roaming around the market- Lunda takes it in and begins a romantic relationship with the bull. Linda discovers she's pregnant - who's the daddy? Linda's not sure, but construction work has begun on the cellar... Sonia and the Underworld: Carol, goddess of moaning, buys Sonia a new trumpet to stop the sound of her voice. Nothing can stand the sound of her playing and the dogs in the vicinity run away. Sonia falls in love with Tina. Tina is spotted 'up west' by X (new character yet to be cast), who instantly falls in love with her and begins to pursue her. Tina runs home but is bitten by a stray and starving dog (who had been driven insane by Sonia's music) and dies. Sonia, in her grief, takes to playing the trumpet night and day and angers the hell out of every living creature. Fearing for her sanity and her ears, Carol suggests she nips down to visit Den Watts' realm of the underworld to visit Tina. Sonia goes and meets Den and his ex wife, Angie and begins to play her trumpet for them. Den tells her to get the hell out and take Tina with him (the lady was not for turning, so he she was useless to him anyway) but only on one condition: Tina would follow her out of the underworld and Sonia must not look back at her until they were in the Square. Sonia readily agrees and begins to walk but she cannot hear Tina's ghostly footsteps and begins to worry that Den had been fooling her. In a panic she turns around and shadow Tina disappears into the underworld, never to return. In her devestation, Sonia turns again to her trumpet and is savaged to death by the angry animals and residents of the square. |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ronnie's bed
Posts: 20,574
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Romeo and Juliet - Tina kills herself Sonia follows suit.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: West London
Posts: 129
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Quote:
Romeo and Juliet - Tina kills herself Sonia follows suit.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: I like to singy singy singy...
Posts: 17,667
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Love these, bravo King C!
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Devon, UK
Posts: 4,645
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In the (apparently) empty flat over the Sari shop hides a dark secret.
A beautiful young woman - Princess Cora - lives there under a cruel enchantment. On pain of death she is forbidden to look out of the windows to enjoy the vibrant street scene outside. To thwart this, she has rigged a conraption of mirrors which allows her to watch passers-by. One bright sunny day, she sees irresistably handsome King Phil Mitchell swaggering along the road, and falls instantly in love. Heedless of the consequences, she rushes down the staircase to catch up with him, but alas, as she crosses the threshold, her doom falls upon her and she ages in a moment to a withered old hag. She collapses in death on top of the veggie stall. Thus ends the Lady of Shallots ... ..... |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,857
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Timon of Athens: When the Vic goes broke, Mick realises that he's given away one too many free drinks. He yells about how s***e humanity is, throws some beer glasses around, and then vanishes. On the Tube, he finds a suitcase full of money, and decides to donate it to ISIS because he now hates humanity so much. Linda catches up with him, and he tells her she's the only one who was truly loyal to him; then throws himself into the Thames. But the body was never found, so who knows, he might be back in a few years ...
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,857
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Rumpelstiltskin:
Prince Martin's wife has just left him, so he's looking for a new bride. Mo knows that the prince is looking for a wife, and says "What about our Stacey? She can spin all the tat off this stall into gold." The prince has Stacey brought to his castle, and shuts her in a downstairs room with a spindle. He says, "Spin all these crappy clothes into gold by tomorrow morning, or it's off with your head." Stacey bursts into tears, because of course she can't spin anything. But then a small imp appears from nowhere, and says "Why are you crying?" "Because some IDIOT told the prince that I could spin these clothes into gold," she says. "Hang on a tick," says the demon. "I can do that for you. But you have to give me something in return." "Like what?" says Stacey. "I don't have anything." "What about your next child?" says the imp. "OK!" Sure enough, the imp spins all the clothes off the market stall into gold. When Prince Martin returns in the morning, he is so impressed that he drops to one knee, "Will you marry me?" "Of course!" says Stacey. Stacey and Martin get married, and Stacey becomes a princess. She is very rich, but one day, she finds out she's pregnant. She isn't sure if the baby was Prince Martin's, or Kush the local baker's. This problem occupies so many of her thoughts that she forgets all about her promise to the demon. When the baby is born, the demon pops up, and says "I want that baby. You promised." Stacey bursts into tears again, and the demon is so sick of her whining that he says "Fine. If you can guess my name when I come back tomorrow, I'll let you keep the baby." Stacey spends a frantic night on Google writing down all the names she can find, like Apple and Chardonnay and Fat Elvis. In the morning, she receives a threatening text: "'AVE YOU GUESSED MY NAME YET, LUV?" Stacey rings the number back, and there is no answer, but a voicemail says "Bobby Beale here. I'm probably killing things on my Playstation. Leave a message." That night, the demon returns. "Well? Have you guessed my name?" "Is it Bobby Beale?" says Stacey. "Curses! How did you know?" says the demon. He stomps his foot and is gone in a puff of smoke. And Stacey lives happily ever after until Prince Martin has her executed for adultery a couple of weeks later. |
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Alcohol aisle in Tescos *gulp*
Posts: 12,043
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A Christmas Carol.
Ian is Scrooge & gets three visits from the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present & Future on Christmas Eve. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 568
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Denny, Prince of Walford
Denny is visited by the ghost of his father, who compels him to take revenge against the man responsible for his death, who is now married to his mother and usurped his place as King of Albert Sq. Denny spends an age debating what to do, roughs his mum up a bit, gets Ben and Jay killed, sends Whitney insane and in the end, kills the entire Mitchell family. |
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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Quote:
A Christmas Carol.
Ian is Scrooge & gets three visits from the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present & Future on Christmas Eve. |
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 69,012
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Quote:
In the (apparently) empty flat over the Sari shop hides a dark secret.
A beautiful young woman - Princess Cora - lives there under a cruel enchantment. On pain of death she is forbidden to look out of the windows to enjoy the vibrant street scene outside. To thwart this, she has rigged a conraption of mirrors which allows her to watch passers-by. One bright sunny day, she sees irresistably handsome King Phil Mitchell swaggering along the road, and falls instantly in love. Heedless of the consequences, she rushes down the staircase to catch up with him, but alas, as she crosses the threshold, her doom falls upon her and she ages in a moment to a withered old hag. She collapses in death on top of the veggie stall. Thus ends the Lady of Shallots ... ..... ![]() ![]() ![]()
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 651
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The merchant of Venice could be a good call. Use some of the market or local business characters, Shabs/Kush/Pam/Martin/Donna/Stacey/Masood and could explore racism or another diversity issue. Good themes of betrayal vs loyalty too
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: The Sixth Circle of Hell
Posts: 20,237
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The Philth could be Sisyphus.
Not only would I enjoy watching him suffer but the boulder would be a very good match for his bald head. |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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Quote:
The merchant of Venice could be a good call. Use some of the market or local business characters, Shabs/Kush/Pam/Martin/Donna/Stacey/Masood and could explore racism or another diversity issue. Good themes of betrayal vs loyalty too
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: I like to singy singy singy...
Posts: 17,667
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I would have done an Othello like storyline over Sharon/Phil and Shirley when Sharon returned. Shirley would become a very Iago like character. She would have got Phil drunk, found out about Dennis encouraged Sharon to marry him, then revealed what happened - then both women destroy him. Revenge for Ev, revenge for Dennis. Self respect for the ladies. No one scrapping over Phil like he's the last man in the world.
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9,858
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Quote:
Romeo and Juliet - Tina kills herself Sonia follows suit.
Quote:
Fed up with both of them so I'd gladly have this as a storyline
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#19 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 7,564
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Babe just screams Miss Havisham, with Shirley as a somewhat unlikely Estella.
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10,723
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Considering Ronnie is basically a walking Greek tragedy they could adapt Medea for her and Charlie.
Charlie gets custody of Matthew and decides to marry Roxy, just like Jason left Medea for another woman and took his and Medea's children. Ronnie (Medea) curses her own existence, but pretends to accept the new marriage bringing the new wife (Roxy) poisoned gifts, thus killing her. She then kills her own child and flees, leaving Charlie/Jason devastated. Hey, they've thought of worst plots for her. |
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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Quote:
Considering Ronnie is basically a walking Greek tragedy they could adapt Medea for her and Charlie.
Charlie gets custody of Matthew and decides to marry Roxy, just like Jason left Medea for another woman and took his and Medea's children. Ronnie (Medea) curses her own existence, but pretends to accept the new marriage bringing the new wife (Roxy) poisoned gifts, thus killing her. She then kills her own child and flees, leaving Charlie/Jason devastated. Hey, they've thought of worst plots for her. |
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10,723
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Quote:
Yep. I think an Othello/Winter's Tale story would really work.
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 99
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Quote:
I'm not familiar with Othello to be honest, and I hated AWT so have blocked it from memory
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