Skellig on Sky

I watched Skellig tonight on TV (luckily for me, they showed it on Sunday and Monday, as I was gutted after missing the first one). The book, written by David Almond, is one of my favorites from the last, I don't know, century? I'm drawn the fantastic, and this book leaves you with many gaps, spaces for you to create your own meaning. The writing is poetic, minimal, and creates such strong and engaging characters. So I was a bit worried about the adaptation, especially since previews showed scenes that felt really out of keeping with the book.

But I have to say, I was impressed. They did make some changes, but I still felt the spirit of the book was captured. I'm not sure if the enigmatic character Skellig came across as well as I would have liked. But then, how do you capture such an ethereal being, who is both or earth and spirit?

My husband and I saw the theater version at the Young Vic several years ago, which was musical (which really worried me!). And in a totally different way, I enjoyed that as well. Theater lends itself differently to opening up imaginary spaces. And they added a lovely touch of dropping white feathers on the audience at the end. The movie was bigger, of course. Mostly, I'm just glad to see this book get as much exposure as it can. Hopefully it will lead people back to the original!