Hanif Kureishi - adapting The Black Album for the stage

In The Guardian, Hanif Kureishi explains how he set about adapting his novel The Black Album for the stage.

We worked on a number of drafts, and it was the usual business of writing: cutting, condensing, expanding, developing, putting in jokes and trying material in different places until the story moved forward naturally. I was particularly keen to keep the banter of students and their often adolescent attitudes, particularly towards sexuality. This was, after all, one of their most significant terrors: that the excitement the west offered would not only be too much for them, but for everyone.

The play opens at the National Theatre later this month.