Only he would have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare: Douglas Hickox's "Theater of Blood" as Adaptation

Linda Hutcheon's point that adaptations are, by their very nature, palimpsestuous is inspired by Gerard Genette s analogy of the hypertext as a palimpsest where "on the same parchment, one text can become superimposed upon another, which it does not quite conceal but allows to show through" (Genette 398-99).3 Genette, himself inspired by Philippe Lejeune, champions the importance of scholars engaging in "palimpsestuous reading[s] ," which involves cultivating a sensitivity to the inherent multiplicities of texts - or as Genette playfully puts it, "one who really loves texts must wish from time to time to love (at least) two together" (399, emphasis in original). Though Theatre of Blood flirts with similar issues to those Barthes had addressed a few years prior to the film's release, it is uncertain whether or not Theatre ultimately manages to release itself from the grip of fidelity criticism, which privileges the author and the critic over the reader, even if it calls into question the usefulness of it and encourages its viewers to do the same.