By Alex Grosset, Arts and Entertainment

21/7- Fans of playwright Delando and theatergoers around the Empire are chomping at the bit this week in anticipation of the long awaited opening for the filmed version of “Dek Kanar Redak”, the sequel to last year’s “Fires of D’Kalm D’Korr”.

The film marks the first time a play has ever been adapted to the fledgling medium, which is most often used for peep shows and five pence shorts involving small animals (typically cats) engaged in amusing behavior. When the project was announced last year, it was both praised as “the most ambitious theatrical undertaking of our time” and derided as “a degradation to the art form of performance and storytelling.”

The film was shot over the course of the year in a theater in Oeil de Fleur, during performances of the play to exclusive crowds (every member of which had to in turn sign a rigid non-disclosure agreement, though that did little to stem the tide of story details getting out). The owner of the theatre, Patrice Chadeau, was famously given a large sum of gold to rent out the theater for a year, though reports say that the filming has hurt him financially.

Fans looking forward to the film may be in for an unpleasant surprise, however, as the release only consists of the first half of the play. The producers of the production claim this decision was made due to the play’s length versus the number of kinetic viewers needed to properly showcase the film, versus the length of time people are willing to spend sitting with their face planted against the viewer itself (the first part alone is said to be divided between seven kinetic viewers, each of them specially built to carry five times the amount of film as a normal viewer and requiring twenty pence apiece to activate).

Early viewers of the film have complained of discomfort and expressed a disappointment with the finished product. Still, the idea has proven novel enough that fans are camping out in front of Penny Parlors across the empire for a chance to view the film.