Hudson Williams’ Next Project Is an Exciting Adaptation, And Fans Have Already Bought Out Copies of the Play Online
It makes sense, dramaturgically.
Oh, to be a Heated Rivalry fan with expendable income. Per The Globe and Mail as well as Variety, copies of Canadian playwright Kat Sandler’s play Yaga are selling out online due to an upcoming Crave Original series adaptation starring Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo, and Hudson Williams.
Real quick, because I’m nothing if not a pedantic theatre kid: Variety’s report incorrectly calls the published Yaga an original screenplay. What folks are buying en masse is a stage play, written by a playwright for the playhouse. There are traditionally no screens involved in theatre, unless the director is into that sort of thing.
Moving on, it’s not hard to see that enthusiasm for Williams is driving sales. The same has happened in the past months with magazines, clothing, skincare, and Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series itself. Yaga is the latest and can provide insight into the show and, obviously, his character.
The narrative that Williams is single-handedly getting a generation to read is eagerly catching on, both on social media and in trade publications that don’t know the difference between the stage and the screen (…who said that?) I earnestly support “Hudson Williams, accidental literary ambassador” as a concept; just as long as we don’t act too surprised or start gawking at this behavior. Heated Rivalry is a book adaptation, after all. It’s impressive, but not that big of a stretch that fans of the written word are eager to continue consuming the written word.
Most folks don’t pick up contemporary plays for a bit of light reading, however, so this is remarkable. The fact that Yaga is a spooky, magical realist, feminist modern fairy tale? Hell yeah, brother.
Here’s what we know about Yaga so far.
The play first premiered in 2019 at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre and has been produced many times since. In 2024, it had its US premiere at Marin Theatre in San Francisco with an all-female cast. The play only calls for three actors. It’ll be interesting for those who pick up the text to see how it gets adapted from stage to screen.
If you don’t want to read the source material and risk spoilers, however, here’s the official description of the series adaptation from Crave and Bell Media:
YAGA follows Rapp (Noah Reid), a private investigator who arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of a young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (Hudson Williams). He finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Katherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic.
A mystery thriller set in a small coastal town? Sign me up. The investigator from out of town can’t get along with local law enforcement? You’re joking. All of that already sounds like some good food, television-wise. It’s the stuff that shows like Broadchurch, Mare of Easttown, Top of the Lake, The Fall, and Sharp Objects are made of, right? This one just so happens to also be a reimagining of the Baba Yaga myth. You may remember Ms. Yaga as the forest witch whose house has chicken legs from a picture book you once read. Suffice to say, I’m sat and ready to unpack that.
David Frazee and Rachel Talalay are the co-directors of the drama series. You’ve seen the former’s television work on shows like Orphan Black and the latter’s on Riverdale and Doctor Who. Talalay also directed Tank Girl, Ghost in the Machine, and the fifth Nightmare on Elm Street film. Production is underway now. There will be eight half-hour episodes. Release date and extracurricular streaming platforms for the Crave Original are TBD.
Sandler, a prolific and award-winning Toronto native with fifteen plays under her belt, is the writer and showrunner for her own play’s small screen adaptation. She’s also a director and the Artistic Director of an experimental theatre collective called Theatre Brouhaha. Please, buy more of her work! Let’s all get into reading plays! Someone has to fund the performing arts. It might as well be us.
(featured image: Crave)
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