LORD OF THE FLIES: adapted Nigel Williams, touring till 21 March.
Nottingham/Touring.
LORD OF THE FLIES adapted Nigel Williams.
Lakeside Arts Centre: Tkts 0115 846 7777 www.lakesidearts.org.uk
Touring Details: www.pilot-theatre.com.
Runs: 2h 10m: one interval.
Review: Alan Geary: 18 November 2008.
Lays bare the savagery inside each of us.
Like Golding’s original novel, this new adaptation from Pilot Theatre bares the savagery inside each of us, exposing primitive compulsions and anxieties that mostly lie hidden.
On a new set, less dominated by the wreckage of the crashed plane than in the previous production four years back, the Victorian ideal of British boyhood is turned on its head.
Important in a play with so much symbolism, characters are well differentiated. As Piggy, the moral centre - asthmatic, working-class and a born victim - Dominic Doughty forces a powerful emotional response; rightly, he manages to be less Frank Spencerish than Jesse Inman was in the same part. Davood Ghadami skilfully conveys Ralph’s boyish acceptance of a new life and his final transformation into a whimpering wreck. Jack, an arrogant Nazi-like bully at the start, a blood-crazed madman at the end, is splendidly done by Mark Knightley.
Background music is effectively used to ratchet up atmosphere; until, that is, towards the end, when it becomes too disco-like. More seriously, the dénouement is as unsatisfactory as it was in 2004: instead of a rescue by a naïve British naval officer in tropical whites, as in the novel, we have the sudden arrival of some hard-bitten paratroopers.
In fact, a certain chronological confusion pervades the production: is it set in the fifties or is it not?
But in portraying the ease with which civilisation and decency can give way to barbarism the play, sadly, seems to resonate even more than it did on the previous tour.
Piggy: Dominic Doughty.
Ralph: Davood Ghadami.
Simon: Tony Hasnath.
Jack: Mark Knightley.
Roger: Lachlan McCall.
Maurice: Elliot Quinn.
Eric: Ben Sewell.
Sam: Michael Sewell.
Director: Marcus Romer.
Original Design: Ali Allen/Marise Rose.
Lighting Design: James Farncombe.
Music Composition: Sandy Nuttgens.
Movement Director: Hannah Priddle.
Fight Director: Phillip D’Orleans.
2008-11-22 10:14:19