I fear we’ve missed the point. I fear the temptation of a cash-grab and readapting reliable IP has overshadowed the inherently anticapitalistic and rebellious themes of the original story. Aside from the fatigue of seeing so many remakes and beating so many dead horses, did no one stop to think about how creating a “Thrillingly theatrical” show using this story shows an insanely low level of media literacy?

Recently, we were presented with our first look at “The Hunger Games: On Stage” and it looks like it will shape out to be an intense and spectacular piece of theatre. However, I am truly baffled how the borderline whack-you-over-the-head-with-the-moral-of-the-story approach of the books was so lost on the producers of this show.

Listen, I’m a theatre kid at heart and I absolutely love the Hunger Games. I love me a good, thrilling play and I truly believe the original hunger games books will be considered classics in the future, but holy shit do we really need this that badly? It feels insane to me that not one of the people involved with this stopped and thought, “huh, isn’t it strange that we’re making a spectacle of children murdering each other… just like the big bad evil guys in this dystopia do?”

“Spectators will feel like a part of the action in this dynamic in-the-round venue, developed with groundbreaking entertainment in mind.” Now I don’t know about you, but that genuinely sounds like something Seneca Crane or Caesar Flickerman might have said in the first hunger games book. Instead, that quote comes from the official Hunger Games: On Stage website.

In the end, making profitable theatre is a tall order. So, truly, to all the team behind this, may the odds be ever in your favour and as one Instagram commentor said: “I hope there’s a tap number.”