“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” George Orwell. Politics and the English Language 1946
This isn’t a quote from Animal Farm but rather from a selection of political essays, a deeply analytical work which focusses on how political chaos corrupts human language including laws and guidelines for living in a civilised community. This is expressed very well in Animal Farm the book and echoed in the stage version this weekend at the Arts Theatre Nottingham.
The animals, tired of their dreadful and cruel lives under Farmer Jones at Manor Farm decide to chase him out and form their own All Animals Are Equal commune with seven strict commandments to adhere to. Except, gradually through the story of a new farm life idyll run by the animals, the rules get adapted and bent when circumstances change and dictatorship by Napoleon the pig upturns the proverbial apple cart.
Animal Farm explores the dangers of being apolitical and Orwell expands on this by explaining that because modern political actions (like war, oppression, or censorship) are inherently brutal, political language relies heavily on euphemisms, vagueness, and prefabricated phrases to make “lies sound truthful and murder respectable”. How hauntingly familiar this all sounds with modern day ‘Napoleons’ like Trump, Putin and Farage doing their level best to corrupt and deceive through blatant lies, grifting and getting their toady faux police to kill citizens without consequence and, those who become worn down and weakened, or oppose their regimes, are often made to disappear. Animal Farm is stuffed with more allegory than stolen chicken eggs in Molly the hens’ egg basket. It’s original target was the 1917 Russian Revolution and Napoleon represented Joseph Stalin. The central message of the novella stated that ‘Unchecked power corrupts absolute ideals and that revolutions can easily fail when citizens remain uncritical of new leaders who trade tyranny for tyranny.”
‘All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.’
The Nottingham Arts Theatre Youth Group have presented the stage adaptation by Tatty Hennessy at The Arts Theatre (10-11 October) and I am here for the last performance on Sunday 11th. There are a gratifying number of audience members present to support their creative and youthful production. Director Keira Dormer-Hazell says that it has been a long rehearsal process and she feels extremely privileged to have worked with a talented collective of young people to bring the play to life. I am sure that the feeling is mutual. It is a fairly large cast (I mean who doesn’t want to play a pig?) and aside from the text and spoken word what comes across as particularly strong is the regular use of physical theatre in groups and the dramatic lighting effects by Oliver Read. This talented cast really own the piece and their realisations of being non-human are subtly done along with some impressive abstract movement. If the key point is to tell a complex story on stage this youth ensemble-led company totes nails it.
Photos by Martin Holtom
Andrei Morris (Napoleon), Oliver Sheard (Squealer) and Eliza Szejda (Clover) carry the show with their individual character-clear and strong interpretations of their key roles of which they should be very proud. The rest of the large ensemble are equally impressive in their depictions of everything from a gossipy pigeon, a dog, horses and a donkey, pigs, Clara the hen and the farmer/narrator (Connie Tegerdine).
the hen and the farmer/narrator (Connie Tegerdine).
They all portray the creatures without resorting to caricature and this gives the whole youth production an enviable professional gloss. I know it is all a fiction but I genuinely feel moved at the human destruction of the animal built windmill and the way that Clara the hen (Tilda Hatton) is bullied into selling her eggs and her dream of seeing them develop into chicks is shattered. The actor reactions of the other animals throughout all the horrors that befall the Animal Farm are very mature and expressive and make my Sunday afternoon at the Arts Theatre Nottingham a delight and a thrill. I will be back on my good ‘two legs’.
