Alright, here's some context. My dad was actually the one who introduced me to Cormac McCarthy. He's only read No Country for Old Men and The Road, and he says The Road emotionally destroyed him. So I read that one too, and then decided to read Blood Meridian.
Setting my own opinions aside, the play I'm writing wouldn't even be called Blood Meridian, the same way many stories inspired by other works use different titles. I'd only borrow a few names—most notably Judge Holden. What I really want to emphasize isn't his atrocities, but his worldview: the way he sees existence itself. Cold, cruel, dark, and violent, yet at the same time brilliant, highly educated, cultured, and, in certain moments, almost refined.
I'd leave out a great deal of the novel, but here's the basic idea I have. The character inspired by the Kid wouldn't begin the story as a kid. Instead, he'd already be the man he becomes at the end of the novel—a man in his thirties or forties, keeping an old man company in a saloon (you probably know the scene I'm referring to). Using a few stage techniques I'm already familiar with, the story would transition into flashbacks as he recounts his years riding with Glanton's gang of ruthless Comanche hunters and the horrors he witnessed Judge Holden commit.
One idea I've always liked is that, as far as I can remember, the novel never really explains why Holden is called "the Judge" (although, judging by the things he says, you don't have to think too hard about it). Because of that, I'd like to add a scene of my own.
When the Kid is locked up in jail and Holden coldly tells him that the guards will execute him in the morning, Holden asks him one final question: "Any last questions before we pass into the unknown?" This is where I'd have the Kid ignore the priest's warning for the first time. Believing he's about to die and has nothing left to fear or grieve over, he'd simply ask Holden:
"Yes... why do they call you the Judge?"
I still haven't imagined the rest of that scene.
Anyway, to give you an idea of what I'm aiming for: how minimalist do you think the play should be? If you could recommend the stories, episodes, or moments from the novel that affected you the most—or the darkest moments in the book—which ones would you suggest including?
I don't want this to be a play that's merely entertaining. I want it to be an emotionally overwhelming experience, something genuinely difficult to sit through, just as McCarthy managed to achieve with his novel.
