Jenny de Klerk
THIS brilliant rendering of an all-toopertinent satire bites home to the bone.
When George Orwell wrote Animal Farm in 1945, about farm animals rebelling against the farmer and taking over the farm, he had the Russian revolution, communism and the rise of the dictator Joseph Stalin in mind.
Again and again history repeats itself. The allegory has never lost its relevance and here it speaks to Africa, from the wistful freedom song, Beasts of Africa, to the fat-bellied dictator pig in his leopardskin finery wallowing in blood.
Director Neil Coppen and choreographer Daniel Buckland have interpreted and woven the story with dramatic symbolism, picking up the songs, dances, chanted slogans, protest marches, police action, militant flagwaving, incendiary speech, double talk and betrayals we here in Africa know only too well.
The cast of five – a splendid ensemble of highly talented women bursting with energy, control and pathos – never miss a motion or an expression, slipping from one character to another by the addition of a twitching tail, ram’s horns, boxing gloves for the hard-working horse, Boxer, various animal noises and, of course, the pig snouts of what emerges as the ruling class.
The story is told by two pathetic survivors – “this is not the freedom we fought for” – as they are trapped into an even worse slavery than the one they escaped. The characters are constantly maintained – the desperate underanimals, the sycophantic spin doctor and henchman and, of course, the selfserving dictator Napoleon.
Thrumming bass and shadow play dramatically enact the land invasions, the battles, the blood-drenched and violent suppression of the protesters.
Topical references… honourable members… and witty comments – “two legs bad, four legs good’, but do pigeons have two legs or four? – precipitate the audience into rueful laughter.
“All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”… at the end, although you thrill to the superb staging and acting, you are despondent and scared. Where are we in what seems the inevitable cycle of history?
The multi-award-winning production has been around for some time, but I kept missing it. I am overwhelming glad I finally caught it. It is undoubtedly one of the best productions I have seen lately.