Animal Farm
\nby George Orwell.
\nAdaptation by Geordie Brookman.
\nState Theatre Company South Australia.
\nSpace Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre.
\nMarch 22. Tickets: $32- $61. Bookings 131 246 or online
\nDuration 1 hour 25 minutes (no interval)
\nUntil March 30.<\/p>\n
When Animal Farm<\/em>, George Orwell\u2019s celebrated novella, was first published in 1945 it was blithely sub-titled : \u201cA Fairy Story\u201d. But it was anything but an ethereal fiction. A year later, the author, himself a committed democratic socialist, wrote : \u201cOf course I intended it primarily as a satire on the Russian Revolution \u2026and that kind<\/em> of revolution (violent conspiratorial revolution, led by unconsciously power hungry people) can only lead to a change of masters.\u201d<\/p>\n Like his equally prescient novel 1984<\/em>, over the 70 years since its first appearance, Animal Farm<\/em> remains George Orwell\u2019s timely warning to the rapidly unravelling 21st<\/sup> century. His allegory of a group of animals expelling Jones the Farmer and turning Manor Farm first into a workers\u2019 collective, and then a bureaucratic tyranny, is forensically described. It is a story, simply and vividly told, of high ideals and low intentions; of the persistent beastliness of human beings.<\/p>\n Starting the 2019 State Theatre season – and memorably closing his 7 year stint as artistic director – Geordie Brookman has both adapted and directed this galvanising, hyper-animated stage version of Orwell\u2019s tale of thuggery, piggery and political deceit.<\/p>\n The novella, with its measured cadence and lucid narrative, is ripe for adaptation to other media \u2013 as it has frequently been for radio, film and the stage. Brookman\u2019s version for solo performer Renato Musolino keeps close to the original in its sequencing and prominent storylines.<\/p>\n Some characters have been deleted \u2013 Mollie, the flibberty mare and Moses the raven, satirising the false comforts of religion \u2013 but that leaves more room for the bastardry of the leadership pigs, Napoleon, Snowball and the brilliantly named Squealer, as well as the stoic courage of Boxer the draughthorse, betrayed for his loyalty and virtue.<\/p>\n Bianka Kennedy\u2019s minimal set features a V-shaped raised stage which, along with the back of the set, is lined with lines of neon tubing which erupt and punctuate the action with striking effect. Alexander Ramsay\u2019s lighting uses chiaschuro shadowing and for the Beckettian prologue only Musolino\u2018s face is visible.<\/p>\n Andrew Howard\u2019s excellent sound design is ominously subliminal, disarmingly lyrical, and, for the battles and storms, the light and sound explosions are bang on.<\/p>\n Morphing his way through 20 characters from pig to man, and man to sheep and goat and horse, Renato Musolino\u2019s performance is splendid. He squeals, whinnies, groans and snorts his way through the story, capturing the swinish hypocrisy of the pigs, with their conveniently modified Commandments, and the gormless obedience of the earnest believers. The story never loses pace or purpose and the force of Orwell\u2019s contempt for fake politics is inescapable.<\/p>\n \u201cMore equal than others\u201d, The Australian<\/em>, March 25, 2019, p.16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Animal Farm by George Orwell. Adaptation by Geordie Brookman. State Theatre Company South Australia. Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre. March 22. Tickets: $32- $61. Bookings 131 246 or online Duration 1 hour 25 minutes (no interval) Until March 30. When Animal Farm, George Orwell\u2019s celebrated novella, was first published in 1945 it was blithely sub-titled : \u201cA Fairy Story\u201d. But it was anything but an ethereal fiction. A year later, the author, himself a committed democratic socialist, wrote : \u201cOf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,5,14,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-39","category-archive","category-state-theatre-company","category-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3014,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions\/3014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraybramwell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}