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Animal Farm

Review

It would be easy for actors impersonating animals to come across as laughable. But the assortment of pigs, sheep, horses, cows and hens in HumDrum's Animal Farm is convincing from the word go.

That's partly because of the ingenious way they portray standing on four legs, which mean no-one crawls. But authentic noises, clever movement and the hint of animal in their masks all help. Well done, especially to Emma Niland whose whinnies, clucks and moos are particularly good as she plays each animal in turn.

George Orwell's classic text is, of course, a parable about Communism in the Soviet Union. So obvious is the satire that it's possible to tell which animals represent Stalin, Trotsky and even Karl Marx. The animals take over from the human farmer in much the same way as Russian workers seized power in 1917.

This adaptation builds tension nicely, so that it's possible to see why Soviet workers might have been duped by the promise of their leaders.

It initially seemed a strange choice for director Caz Gilmore to put her narrator - a boy reading Orwell's text as if it were a bedtime story - centre stage. But the change in his character and the way he plays with toy animals add to the ambience.

This story about animals teaches us about the character of humans.

Neil Pugmire - The News