Laurence Wilson, familiar to Liverpool audiences as writer
for 20 Stories High and a former Writer in Residence at the Everyman, has made
this new adaptation of Orwell’s classic allegorical novel for Liverpool based
community theatre company Tell Tale Theatre. It enjoyed four evenings at the
Arts Club in Seel Street prior to playing in a shortened version to a number of
local schools, thanks to support from the BBC Performing Arts Fund.
Impressively detailed designs by Alice Smith and Jasmine
Swan fill the square thrust of the Arts Club spill straw over the barbed wire
into the audience, and place the characters in farmer’s garb. There is
(thankfully) no attempt make the actors up as the various animals, leaving them
to make us believe the transformation through their movement and vocalisations.
The dialogue is delivered without any animalism, but the
grunts, squeals, yelps and clucking emitted in between the lines does the
trick, along with a good deal of rolling around in the straw. There was one
point when the broody clucking and cooing of a flock of hens had me expecting a
few dozen eggs to materialise.
Like its source material, this adaptation has a beguiling
ability to creep up on its audience unawares. To begin with it’s almost as
though we’re watching a group of children playing at being animals and the
whole thing is full of good natured humour, but this is cunningly luring us
into a false sense of security, as the piece becomes gradually more dark and
sinister.
There are some fine performances, with one or two of the
actors changing roles across performances.
On the evening I saw the play Bradley Thompson was a cold
and focused Old Major, and Jack Spencer and Shaun Roberts were, respectively,
Snowball and Squealer. Of particular note were Lee Burnitt’s strong depiction
of the world-weary Boxer and Rob Kavanagh’s seriously frightening Napoleon. Donna
Coleman transformed from a dog to a chicken with apparent ease and vocal
agility and Thom Nevitt’s Moses, appearing over the top of the set with strange
flapping gestures, had an oddly other-worldly feel.
This is an imaginative telling of the tale that finds some
imaginative theatrical devices under Emma Whitley’s direction to solve many of
the problems of putting it on stage. It is also a very physical piece with huge
energy from all the actors, who have pathways through the audience to make many
of their entrances and exits, and has the room shaking.
Music by Dave Owen is largely performed on solo guitar, and
is supplemented with sound design that heightens the atmosphere at all the
right moments.
It’s good to see theatrical work in this space, generally
more used to seeing musical performance. With its prominent thrust stage,
supporting pillars and terraced seating it strangely takes on a look of Shakespeare’s
Globe when set for a play.
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Bradley Thompson (Old Major) and the cast of Animal Farm
Photo ©James Newmarch
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