ANIMAL FARM: Orwell [Adapted by Sir Peter Hall], Derby Playhouse till 24 June

Derby

ANIMAL FARM: George Orwell [adapted Sir Peter Hall]
Derby Playhouse: Tkts 01332 363275 www.derbyplayhouse.co.uk
Runs: 2h 30m: one interval: till 24th June
Performance times: 7.30pm eve [except Suns], 2.30pm matinees Weds and Sats [except 21st and 24th June], 10.00am 21st June
Education Day 21st June
Review: Alan Geary: 2nd June 2006

Moving, entertaining, but not entirely at home on stage

Perhaps not wholly suited to stage adaptation, it’s nevertheless moving, entertaining and close to the bone.
We’ve come to expect impressive sets at Derby. This one doesn’t disappoint. In an entertaining and moving production the Playhouse stage is dominated by a colourful fairy-tale farmhouse, later revolving to become the windmill. And there are other, non-gratuitous and humane, trademark directorial touches from Stephen Edwards - for instance, Whymper coming in on a bike.

That said, Orwell’s allegory isn’t wholly suited to stage adaptation: narration is at times over-necessary; and some of the dialogue, artificially inserted to move the plot along, gets lost in the farmyard mayhem.

It’s not a musical even though Richard Peaslee’s score is an essential component. Songs [lyrics are by Adrian Mitchell] are mostly used when singing would be appropriate in a revolutionary situation in real life - “Beasts of England” is a genuinely stirring anthem.

Most of the acting is clever. Performers have to move about as animals with human characteristics: Sarah Head, for instance, as Clover, with a toss of the head or a movement of the foot, does this beautifully. Craig Purnell’s Snowball, with demonic-looking beard and glasses, is made to look like Trotsky. And, as the tale unfolds, Ben Roberts, as Napoleon, more and more resembles Stalin, with all his guile and megalomania.

It’s a shame though that the particular talents of actors like Lucien MacDougall probably have to be wasted; not just because of the need for animal head-dresses, but, more importantly, because they get lost in the farmyard crowd scenes.

Often suggesting socialist-realism tableaux, these are handled brilliantly. Animals behave like animals when humans are about, like humans when they’re not; as they mill around it’s clear that their idea of personal space is entirely non-human.

The fear and mass-hysteria of the show trials are well conveyed; so is the increasingly propaganda soaked atmosphere. [A companion, someone from ex-Communist Europe, found the evening upsettingly “close to the bone”].

Would Orwell have liked this adaptation? Impossible to say; somehow you doubt it. Specific events being allegorised in Animal Farm are sliding from living memory into history and, now that the Cold War has gone away, it no longer explains the immediate here and now. It will, of course, always be of massive general significance.

Cast
Clover: Sarah Head
Benjamin: David Hobbs
Squealer: Lucien MacDougall
Snowball/Minimus: Craig Purnell
Napoleon: Ben Roberts
Narrator/Old Major/Pilkington: Neil Salvage
Mollie/Cockrel: Bethany Sheldon
Boxer: Dickon Tyrrell
Murial: Josephine Welcome
Blue and Red Teams from the Egg Theatre Academy

Director: Stephen Edwards
Designer: Kate Unwin
Lighting Designer: David Plater
Musical Director: Kelvin Towse

2006-06-06 14:48:27