The Overcoat

Adaptations

A stamp depicting "The Overcoat", from the souvenir sheet of Russia devoted to the 200th birth anniversary of Nikolai Gogol, 2009

Films

A number of films have used the story, both in the Soviet Union and in other countries:

  • The Overcoat (1916) – an American silent film directed by Rae Berger
  • The Overcoat (1926) – a Soviet silent film directed by Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg
  • The Overcoat (1951) – a film of Marcel Marceau's Mime Play with W. Schleif in Berlin
  • The Overcoat ("Il Cappotto") (1952) – an Italian film directed by Alberto Lattuada
  • The Awakening (1954), an adaptation for the Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents television series starring Buster Keaton, with the story transposed to an unnamed totalitarian state.
  • The Bespoke Overcoat (1955) – an Oscar-winning short British film directed by Jack Clayton based on Wolf Mankowitz's 1953 play of the same name. Here the story is transposed to the East End of London and the protagonists are poor Jews working in the clothing trade.
  • The Overcoat (1959) – a Soviet film directed by Aleksey Batalov
  • The Overcoat (1976) – an Iraqi Kurdish made-for-TV film adapted by Simko Nakam and directed by Jamal Mohamad
  • Nayi Sherwani (1986) – an adaptation for the Indian DD National television series Katha Sagar by Shyam Benegal
  • The Overcoat (1997) – a Greek film
  • The Overcoat (2001) – a Canadian made-for-TV film produced by the CBC
  • The Overcoat – an unfinished animated film by Yuriy Norshteyn and Francheska Yarbusova, in the works since the early 1980s.[18]
  • The Overcoat (2017) – a short film adapted and directed by Patrick Myles starring Jason Watkins, Tim Key, Vicki Pepperdine and Alex Macqueen.[19]
  • The Overcoat (2018) – an animated special adapted by Hugh O'Conor and directed by Sean Mullen & Meelis Arulepp, starring Cillian Murphy and Alfred Molina.[20]

Radio

  • Gogol's story was adapted twice on the radio series Theatre Royal, first on October 11, 1953 and then on August 4, 1954, both versions starring Sir Michael Redgrave as Akaky.
  • Hans Conreid starred as Akaky in an adaptation on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater on March 3, 1977.
  • On April 3, 2002, the BBC Radio 4 series Three Ivans, Two Aunts and an Overcoat broadcast an adaptation by Jim Poyser of the story starring Stephen Moore as Akaky. In this version, the Very Important Person whose overcoat Akaky's ghost takes is Akaky's immediate superior Colonel Borzov, and the ending is altered to have Akaky's ghost visit him in his office (rather than on his way home in his sleigh, as in the story) to take both the overcoat and Borzov's Very Important Person medal (and a bag of sugared rusks).

Ballet

  • The Russian composer German Okunev was working on a ballet version of 'The Overcoat' at the time of his death in 1973: it was completed and orchestrated by V. Sapozhnikov.
  • A recent adaptation by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling, set to various music by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, was performed by actors using dance and mime.[21] A film version was produced by the CBC.
  • The Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt created a version for Dennis Nahat and the Clevelend-San Jose Ballet. The principal role was performed by Rudolph Nureyev at the world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in the summer of 1990.

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