Animal Farm On Stage: Power to the pigs

Cal Poly production of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ remains a‘parable for the 21st century’

By Joan Crowder

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM DUGAN

From left, Colin Goodridge plays Benjamin, Jeff Azevedo plays Napoleon and Menalie Marshall is Squealer in Cal Poly’s ‘Animal Farm.’

‘ANIMAL FARM’

8 p.m. today through Saturday, and Wednesday and Thursday; 2 p.m. Sunday Spanos Theatre, Cal Poly $10 to $12 756-2787 or www.pacslo.org

The cast of Cal Poly’s “Animal Farm” will be transformed into horses, pigs, sheep, cows and other farm animals as George Orwell’s classic political novel comes to life on stage.

The actors were already familiar with the story, said director Josh Machamer of the Theatre and Dance Department, because the book is assigned reading in many high school classes. In it, the animals take the farm from their oppressive owner and set up their own society. It begins with utopian dreams of democracy and ends with the pigs metamorphosing into tyrannical leaders, not unlike the farmer they had overthrown.

“It’s a metaphorical history lesson, originally about the Russian Revolution, but also about the English class system,” the director said. But it continues to resonate today, 60 years after it was first published.

“It speaks to the precarious nature of leadership and power and the interplay of both in building a society.”

Machamer calls “Animal Farm” a “chilling and necessary parable for the 21st century.”

The tyranny of the pigs is contrasted with the loyalty of some of the other animals, like the stalwart horses that continue to do their duty. Machamer relates it to those fighting in Iraq.

“They’re on the front lines, while the pigs are in the farmhouse. …”

The stage version of the allegorical story, adapted by Ian Wooldridge, is a teaching opportunity with creative challenges for designers, cast and crew, the director said, and he selected “Animal Farm” for several reasons.

“It’s something different, with a focus on ensemble, physical theater and environmental theater, and it has political ideology entrenched in it.”

Machamer spent time last summer in England, seeing plays that attempted to get rid of the separation between the actor and the audience, and this production is designed with that in mind, he said. It will be performed in theater-in-the-round style, with the audience seated onstage in three different seating arrangements—regular chairs, bleachers, and wooden pallets with cushions. This design teaches flexibility, he explained, training the actors in a different kind of space. The characters, as animals, are an unusual acting lesson, as well.

“The actors have to physically transform themselves.”

The cast walked out to the pig and sheep units at Cal Poly to observe the physical characteristics of the animals they were playing.

The set was designed by Meg Cunningham, a fifth-year architecture major. The building materials, such as raw wood, give the set a warehouse feel, Machamer said.

The early 20th-century sensibility is also reflected in the costumes, which are designed by Danielle Biondo, who spent half the year working on them as her senior project.

“We didn’t want to be down on all fours,” Machamer said. “We wanted animalistic qualities in human form.”

The horses wear horse collars and heavy, thickly textured coats.

“For the pigs, we accentuate their bulk on top with spindly legs.” They wear white leggings and ballet slippers. Fargo hats are folded back to resemble ears.

Lowell Olcott, a theater major, designed the lighting. It’s unusual to have sets, costumes and lighting all designed by students, the director explained.

This is a virtually original production for Machamer. Although “Animal Farm” has been performed with animation and with puppets, he has never seen a stage version of it.

“I don’t know how others did it. It’s a challenge for me and for the students.”

He hopes audiences will be challenged as well, he said. Whether they leave liking it or not liking it, he wants the production to make an impression. “I don’t want them to go home and eat a sandwich and forget about it.”