George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ has become a staple of American educational reading — and rightfully so. Orwell deftly creates the story of revolution overtaken by a new set of leaders and how the situation devolves, through the use of words, actions and propaganda into a totalitarian state.
Sadly, Orwell’s deeply emotional and human story presented at Okemos High School is hampered by a very poor adaptation of the script. Theater is about “showing,” not “telling” an audience — and this script spends far too much time telling us, in rigid uncomfortable monologues — about the story. As an audience we are never given an opportunity to care about the plight of the animals of “Manor Farm.” That becomes a near fatal flaw for this production, despite a team of talented actors and technical staff producing a visually stunning piece of theater.
And let’s be clear — the technical aspects of this show are worth the price of admission. A beautiful stable set is the main feature on the stage and is lit beautifully creating harsh shadows when the Pig Leadership appears. The set also contains a beautiful set of four back projection screens, which are used throughout to present the audience with images of the Russian revolution, the American revolution and more. The screens are also used early on to delineate which species of animal are speaking by projecting simple drawings of pigs or horses.
The “revolution” early in Act I is a beautifully realized and highly stylized movement to music choreographed by Karyn Perry. When Famrer Jones and the other humans attempt to retake the farm, the audience is treated to a stop motion projection set on the screens. The projection fight is effective, but not nearly as affecting as the movement to music piece of the original revolution.
The young cast did a fine job with the script, but suffered terrible from the inability to have fully realized characters. As a result, too often the characters were stereotypes and cartoons, rather than truly living breathing characters living the events on stage.
