Tag Archives: George Orwell

ANIMAL FARM

★★★★

Stratford East

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ANIMAL FARM

Stratford East

★★★★

“some truly striking moments of grand theatricality”

First things first, there is no farm. Not one that we would recognise anyway. Not the solace of a green field or a puffy cloud against an azure sky. This Animal Farm is a factory farm. A gutter scythes through the stage running red with the blood of slaughtered animals.

In director Amy Leach’s powerful and visually stunning interpretation of the George Orwell novella, the world is a succession of wire cages. These animals’ lives are bloody, mucky and constrained.

Set and costume designer Hayley Grindle dresses the animals in smeared vests and boiler suits, their designation (Sheep, Dog etc) tattooed or worn as patches – and where have we seen that before?

Old Major (Everal A Walsh) warns his friends they are sleepwalking towards their own destruction. He too is carried off to the abattoir but his final cry for rebellion finds purchase and revolution follows.

In many of the beautifully worked set pieces – brutal, sinewy ballets – the look and feel is that of a Kraftwerk gig, all soulless electronica, wire and concrete picked out in red and white with starkly lit bodies as silhouettes in strobe-like slow motion.

It is against this backdrop of warehouse columns and ominous shadows that the menagerie fights for scraps of dignity, putting the agro into agro-industrial complex.

“Hambush!’ coos gossipy pigeon and part-time narrator Milo (Em Prendergast), who adds necessary comic relief to a relentlessly grim tale.

Snowball (Robin Morrissey) and Napoleon (Tachia Newall) square off in a battle of ideals. Sneaky little Squealer (Tom Simper) sows the seeds of distrust and watches his manipulations infect the mind of bombastic Napoleon who succumbs to paranoia and corruption.

Tatty Hennessy’s muscular adaptation – accessible through seamless British Sign Language – is never less than ambitious in its manifesto and purpose.

A banner reads “All animals are created equal.” Over the course of two hours the declaration becomes first an ideal, then a plan, then a provocation, then an anathema and finally a fig leaf to justify oppression. Some animals are more equal than others, Orwell reminds us.

Caught up in the crossfire is a vibrant selection of characters each given their own personalities mercifully free of nursery rhyme cliché. Clover (Tianah Hodding) is frustratingly naïve, Boxer (Gabriel Paul) hard working, Minty (Farshid Rokey) malleable, Clara (Brydie Service) maternal, Blue (Joshua-Alexander Williams) vicious and so on.

It is a truism that Orwell’s response to the Soviet Union is perennially relevant, even in its 80th anniversary year (which accounts for a high crop yield of productions recently). As a result, there is an occasional over-elaboration of message infecting a script which, otherwise, demonstrates effectively how division is a design flaw of the human soul.

There is another box, which sits above the stage, drenched in luxury. First the greedy farmers look down on the animals and then the animals look down on the lesser animals, watching them writhe in their own muck, this time out of deluded sense of community and joint endeavour.

Inevitably, characters become less distinctive as the end nears but the impressive cast holds out for as long as it can before surrendering to the needs of allegory.

Meanwhile, in this committed and sure-footed production, the slow descent into bleakness is marked out by some truly striking moments of grand theatricality.



ANIMAL FARM

Stratford East

Reviewed on 13th February 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Kirsten McTernan

 

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

PINOCCHIO | ★★★★ | November 2024
WONDER BOY | ★★★★ | October 2024
ABIGAIL’S PARTY | ★★★★ | September 2024
NOW, I SEE | ★★★★ | May 2024
CHEEKY LITTLE BROWN | ★★★½ | April 2024
THE BIG LIFE | ★★★★★ | February 2024
BEAUTIFUL THING | ★★★★★ | September 2023

ANIMAL FARM

ANIMAL FARM

ANIMAL FARM

 

ANIMAL FARM

★★★

UK Tour

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ANIMAL FARM

Rose Theatre

★★★

“There is much to admire, and the ideas are inspired”

The unnerving and overpowering effect of George Orwell’s novella, “Animal Farm” is how little has changed less than a century on from its publication in 1945. His biting political allegory was an unveiled attack on totalitarianism, more specifically Stalinism. We don’t need to look at history to wonder what Orwell would make of today’s leading political figures, nor do we need to rely on the Soviet-style, Communist regimes to appreciate the inspiration behind his writing. The popular graffiti slogan often seen on urban walls – ‘George Orwell was an optimist’ – is resonant today, and Ian Wooldridge’s current stage adaptation allies itself to that point of view.

Remaining faithful to the original it promises to pack a punch as we enter the grim, nightmare scenario. Metallic music throbs while surveillance cameras, perched on the vandalised, corrugated backdrop, watch us take our seats. Elements of sci-fi drift in as the harsh percussion gives way to hymnal, synthetic strings of a ‘brave-new-dawn’. A temporary reprieve, however, as those familiar with Orwell’s writing will know. Director Iqbal Khan’s production shares that sense of frustrated potential. There is much to admire, and the ideas are inspired. Ciarán Bagnall’s brutal set is more knacker’s yard than farm and the skeletal, lattice framed masks of the animals have a suitably dystopian quality. It is a shame though to spoil the effect with unnecessary gestures and playground animal noises.

Individual characterisation suffers, too, from an overreliance on provincial accents to distinguish the roles. Yet the performers are given plenty to get their teeth into and the commitment is unyielding, but it feels like they have been pushed too hard in one direction. Too many lines are shouted and even the quieter, reflective moments are over projected, as though the audience are either hard of hearing or primary school kids. Natalia Campbell’s ‘Old Major’ delivers a strong opening address that sets the scene, although the Queen Vic Cockney accent dampens the gravity. We expect a pub brawl rather than a revolution. ‘Napolean’, the chief pig whose tyranny replaces the tyranny that has been overthrown, is more precocious teenager than despot in Rhian Lynch’s hands. With Lewis Griffin’s streetwise ‘Squealer’ they rule the new regime with fake news, propaganda and an over-zealous trend of silencing dissidents. A chillingly familiar scenario. Soroosh Lavasani gives a more nuanced ‘Snowball’, the downtrodden rival to ‘Napoleon’, while Sam Black’s ‘Boxer’ – the silently-strong yet naively loyal work-horse – beckons our sympathy.

The nuances and the resonances are all in the writing. The execution, however, misses tricks and opportunities and a lot of the time we feel like we are being delivered a lecture. The setting, enhanced by Dylan Townley’s thrilling music and Gerry Marsden’s atmospheric sound design, promises the ‘fairy story’ that Orwell himself dubbed the novella. Quite why it should be considered a fairytale is open to debate, but a fable it definitely is. Khan’s production does indeed get all the points across, and we are given a stern warning about the recycling of history. Aesthetically it reproduces the story perfectly. The excessive exposition, however, obscures the general concept behind this production: a show that is plainly full of striking and thought-provoking ideas.

 

ANIMAL FARM

Rose Theatre then UK Tour continues

Reviewed on 4th February 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

 

 


 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

NEVER LET ME GO | ★★★ | September 2024
SHOOTING HEDDA GABLER | ★★★★ | October 2023

ANIMAL FARMMAL FARM

NIMAL FARM