Reviews-Gate – 2nd June 2006
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.