Animal Farm Lower School Play A balmy summer evening, cobbled yard, old stables and an orchard: what could provide a better setting for George Orwell’s allegorical Animal Farm ? The garden of Orchard House was the perfect backdrop for the unfolding of this Fairy Tale (as Orwell sub-titled it). All that was needed was a troupe of farm animals to inhabit the scene and spin the yarn; the troupe characteristic of their creatures or collars of feathers: their observant and disciplined physicality told it all. The Sheep, with their bleating laughs and inability to master letters beyond A, were Sheep. The Bull Terriers were terrifying and the flock of Hens flitted convincingly from giggly to indignant. Felix Gralton became a delightfully panting Dog and there was meditative cud-chewing by Tom Sampson and Jai Claydon as the Cows. In such story-telling Chorus work, vibrant facial expressions are essential: Gerard of 22 boys supplied these with panache. The enthusiastic Lower School ensemble needed no animal elements of costume beyond ears
Emlyn-Jones, Kaly Whittington-Rao and Conor Burke were outstanding in this respect. Multi- role playing was common but never confusing; Sam Schulenberg had to die three times, twice as a Hen and once, gruesomely, as a Sheep. Individual characters had evolved an equally effective essence of the animal, admirably meeting the challenging task of sustaining this physicality throughout. There was elegant felinity from Kwaku Gyasi’s Cat and Thomas Blackman endearingly displayed Mollie the Pony’s trauma over being forbidden to wear her ribbons. They sat in stark contrast to the scheming malice of Moses the Raven (James Laurie) as he beguiled the sheep with visions of Sugarcandy Mountain. In a more heavyweight vein, Peter Bristow mastered the Donkey Benjamin’s melancholy worldview, pessimistic throughout, so much so that his lower jaw must have ached after each performance. Beside him, Boxer the Carthorse stolidly swished his straw-skein tail, dedicated
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