Animal Farm review

The challenge for any director looking to take an often-staged classic for another canter around the theatrical paddock is finding something new and impactful to bring to it. George Orwell’s allegorical story about animals who overthrow their farmer turns 80 this year. Although it was written in response to the Russian Revolution and Stalin, its timeless appeal has been its ability to speak to many situations where greed has sabotaged democracy. Amy Leach’s production of Tatty Hennessy’s adaptation does not signpost any particular political situation, but in making the animals virtually human, stamped with the name of their species and othered by their farmer, it brings to mind several current world crises. Coupled with dangerous, precursory lines such as “There’s not enough room for everyone”, this ratchets up our empathy. It’s a vivid and attentively stylised production, in which every moment is weighty with meaning. 

Striking visions of cruelty and oppression drive home what a miserable ordeal these animals suffer, first at the hands of Farmer Jones (Kaya Ulasli, fittingly frightening in his stage debut), then the conniving, power-hungry Napoleon (a wild-eyed, increasingly demonic Tachia Newall). On Hayley Grindle’s two-tier set, they cower in cramped cages evoking battery farms, or flinch in unison as Jones cracks his whip while patrolling from his glass house above the farmyard. But those in glass houses should be cautious of throwing stones.

Continues…