Review: Animal Farm

This is the fourth play version of Orwell's brilliant satirical novella of Stalinist Russia that is eternally relevant and perhaps never more so than now. Tatty Hennessy's fresh new version has just played at Theatre Royal Stratford East and received five-star reviews, before embarking on a regional tour. This is a vibrant and bold adaptation in two acts with twenty-seven scenes and features a cast of thirteen actors. It is prefaced with four lines of advice, which make it very suitable for production in schools:

This version doesn't require masks for the animals (like the Peter Hall/Adrian Mitchell version) or a chorus, but is nicely split into episodes. It even features a new character, Milo the carrier pigeon, who acts as a stand-up comedian and whose monologues are prefaced with: ‘You're not gonna believe this, lads … my mate Coco knows this sparrow …’. The dialogue throughout is inkeeping with Orwell's but has a sprightly modern air. For example, when Squealer is accused of stealing milk in Act 1 by Boxer, he says: ‘I don't even like milk. Claggy. Isn't it?’