Review: Animal Farm, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘It may stay with you for a lifetime’

Making and engaging with art are political acts. Watching the battlefield slaughter and executions of Orwell’s farmyard animals, hearing their leaders’ blatant propagandist lies, are heartbreaking reminders of the power and importance of culture.

Animal Farm is on the school curriculum, which last night meant a full house for this excellent production. I’ll say it again later, but get a ticket (if not for Bath, chase it while it’s on tour).

If you don’t know the story, George Orwell’s novel is about exploited, hungry farmyard animals who rise up against the humans and run the farm, only to end up duped, hungry and exploited by – and often complicit with – their new leaders.

In association with Birmingham Rep, Children’s Theatre Partnership has created something extraordinary. It is easily up there with National Theatre’s rightly-feted War Horse.

An outstanding ensemble cast of 14 bring phenomenal puppets to life – showing each creature’s every pulse and breath from moment to moment.

It’s not only an astounding achievement in terms of visual and auditory puppetry, but also as a piece of physical theatre; it’s easy to forget there are humans manipulating these perpetually moving beasts.

Boxer (puppeteers Elisa De Gray, Matt Tait and Rayo Patel) and Squeela (puppeteers Ailsa Dalling and Matt Churcher) – photo: Manuel Harlan

I can’t do justice to what we saw on stage. The motion never stops and is constantly varied; the storytelling is ideally paced; the soundscape and original music powerfully pitched; the lighting and set just stunning in their effect. This is what you get when a talented team give their absolute all.

All credit to Robert Icke who has adapted the novel and directs, with Associate Director Joshua Higgott. Toby Olié designed and directs these best-in-class puppets (with Daisy Beattie and Laura Cubitt).

Set and costume credits go to Bunny Christie, with Assistant Designer Verity Sadler. Jon Clark’s lighting is a storytelling masterclass, and Tom Gibbons’s sound and music are the last – stupendously impactful – piece of this marvellous theatrical jigsaw.

Cockerel with puppeteer Rayo Patel – photo: Manuel Harlan

I really have run out of superlatives. But I need to tell you more.

My 11 year-old sees a decent amount of theatre. He was blown away. The auditorium was packed with large school groups of young adults. Not a grumble or giggle could be heard. Just gasps. I was repeatedly moved near to tears.

But there’s also humour – lots of it. Because the animals are (of course) only human. They have their silly ticks, vanities and bickering (watch out for Belinda the chicken and her chum). Icke’s characterisation and the cast’s compassionate and utterly convincing performances take you with them on this journey every step of the way.

Animal Farm never was an easy story. But it was always important – it is today, and will be tomorrow, just as much as in 1945. Hope, inaction, complicity, weakness, power-hunger, exploitation and self-deception are all powerfully conveyed in this 90-minute burst that may stay with you for a lifetime.

Clover (puppeteers Yana Penrose and Edie Edmundson) and Boxer (puppeteers Elisa De Grey, Matt Tait and Rayo Patel) – photo: Manuel Harlan

Animal Farm is at Theatre Royal Bath, Sawclose, Bath, BA1 1ET on March 1-5 at 7.30pm, with matinee shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday at 2.30pm. Tickets are available at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.

Main photo: Manuel Harlan

Read more: Review: An Hour and a Half Late, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘A comedy of sorts’

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