in his determination to finish the windmill. Such was the strength of Thomas Crossley’s performance that the farewell party to wish him restful recuperation was heart-breaking in its irony, the audience knowing what the duped animals do not: Boxer is bound for the knacker’s yard. Orwell himself wrote that in Animal Farm he aimed ‘to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole.’ Anna Simpson’s expert adaptation and production of this political parable pursued this intention with unwavering focus: she pitched it just right in both rhetoric and seamless flow of scenes. It made the most of the fantasy, revealing ever deeper, darker undertones. Snowball labouring to teach the Sheep to read and the Cockerel, as cocky as a rock star (Lexi Jeffs was an hilarious babe magnet) strutting his stuff in front of his swooning Hen harem were two captivating comedic moments. These were counter- balanced by harrowing rendering of the deaths of offending animals at the hands of the Dogs, artfully achieved with symbolic red ribbon and confetti. The protesting Hens, rebelling against the loss of their children, hurling their (real) eggs over the stable door had grim defiance. The porcine centres of the piece were played to perfection.Tyreece Asamoah as Napoleon the Pig skilfully developed the cult of personality, deploying his troop of attack Dogs with chilling Stalinistic control. Mitchell Simmonds’ Snowball gave us Trotsky on trotters, passionate rhetoric spoken with a real understanding of the vision for Animalism, until he was driven from the farm by Napoleon’s canine force. Squealer (Zak Asgard) was an endearing Pig, slyly rewriting the Seven Commandments on the chalk board and slickly justifying the theft of the apples. These three Pigs, with cloven feet and a taste for oratory, had the audience as much in their thrall as were the proletariat farm creatures. Despite being bipedal throughout, when Squealer and Napoleon emerged from the farmhouse at the end, Pigs can no longer distinguishable from humans; they convinced us entirely that it was painfully cumbersome to walk in the manner of men, on two boot-clad legs. Have no fear, Animal Farm company: your audience certainly did enjoy your creations every bit as much as you clearly relished the process of developing them. It was timely to remind us of the dangers of idealism gone wrong, of the corruptive force of power, and the powerlessness of the oppressed. The over-throwers of dictators often become dictators themselves; there are, alas, too many parallels with Animal Farm in our modern world. Thank you for using your skills and playfulness to help us see them. MS MAGGIE JARMAN
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