Animal Farm: Review Of The Play

If you are expecting fancy costumes and humans dressed up like pigs and dogs, then you will be disappointed by the Wild Rice production of Animal Farm currently at the Drama Centre @ NLB. I was, but the acting and the storytelling made up for it to some extent. The "animals" such as Napoleon and Snowball are created not through fancy costumes but by the human body. This serves to reinforce one of the main messages of the novel: the fine line between humans and animals. The cast hams it up and certain parts are quite funny, eliciting laughter from the audience. For me, one of the highlights of the play is the construction of the windmill, which looms large on the stage in shades of grey. I personally would have wished for more of such props, like in the London production of Lion King I watched two years ago. That was indeed a feast for the eyes. However, the Wild Rice production is minimalist in its approach. I guess it is a different experience from the productions I have watched -- no crashing chandeliers as in the Phantom of the Opera, or a flying car as in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Different, in this case, can be refreshing.