Animal Farm
Productions:
Animal Farm
Lashings of Ginger Beer
Macbeth
The Wizard of Oz
Frankenstein
Pinocchia
The Railway Children
The Tempest
A Christmas Carol
Winchester: The First…
A King's City Christmas
Changes
4 Calling Birds
It’s A Wonderful Life
A Christmas Cornucopia
Around The World In Eighty Days
The Selfish Giant
Much Ado About Nothing
Grimm Tales
Tales From The Arabian Nights
The Snow Queen
The Hotel
The Happy Prince
Hamlet
Living Without Fear
The Government Inspector
Captain Miserable & The Book Guardian
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The first five years…
Blue Apple actors in dress rehearsal with the puppet of Old Major voiced by Jeremy Bowen.
Programme
Poster
Image by Richard Williams
Graphic Design
Photography
Printing
Richard Williams
Mike Hall
Diguru Limited
Reviews
Review by Elaine Chapman, an independent reviewer who reviews at https://theatreandartreviews.wordpress.com/
Read her full review of Animal Farm here.
“Bringing together a superb combination of music, acting, puppets, and audio-visuals, the scene is all set .
A take on the novel tells the story from different perspectives and opens up debate on the meaning behind the classic novel.
The fantastic stage farm setting complete with straw trailing out from the stable doorway sets the scene for Manor Farm where the disgruntled animals live and work. Creator Mark Pyke’s set design offers a superb backdrop for the cast to bring Animal Farm to life.
The two henchman dogs played by Paul Smith and James Spencer added humour to the performance. Their black leather jackets, tattooed arm sleeves and dark glasses oozed menace and fear to the Farm animals as they fiercely stood guard at the farmhouse door protecting the power-hungry pigs, led by Napoleon (Tom Hatchett).
Director Richard Conlon has achieved another successful and thought-provoking production with the talented cast members from Blue Apple. His enthusiasm, patience and expertise bring out the confidence and acting abilities in his cast. I never fail to be impressed by their productions.
Four Stars.”
See the Eastleigh News review of Animal Farm here.
“A delightful evening at Theatre Royal Winchester was held as Blue Apple’s production of the classic novel Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, provided much entertainment throughout the evening.
... went down really well with fans.
The show was a great watch and the stage was set as a farm which helped set the scene and began with the drunken farmer being forced out of his own farm by over worked and tired animals in which they take over the farm.
This play was very talented with a great performance throughout and provided lots of laughter with humour and wit and was easy to follow.
Blue Apple is an ambitious creative company supporting learning disabled performers to develop and showcase their theatre, dance, singing and film skills, stage productions to public audiences and build creative confident communities.”
Director's notes
Welcome to the Blue Apple Animal Farm. Believe it or not, this is the project we started back in early 2020 before the world changed… three years later it has finally arrived.
We had great fun discussing George Orwell’s intentions with his Fairy Tale for Adults and also finding modern resonances in the story. Of course, this was begun before leaders of Russia decided to take on Ukraine in a war which feels like it doesn’t belong in this century. We can only guess at what Orwell would have made of all that.
At Blue Apple we treat the source material with respect but not reverence – we’ve taken some massive liberties here, to make the piece feel modern. We decided, as a cast, that our version of the closing moments of the show would be more optimistic than the final words of the book. Maybe our company is optimistic by nature as, in eighteen years, we’ve seen some real change in the visibility of learning disabled actors on stage and screen.
It’s been an amazing time for our little company recently, with our very valuable outreach work extending across Hampshire and members of our Stage Company taking work to Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Beijing (by Zoom) and an invitation to Greece later this year. The staff and performers in this organisation punch above their weight when it comes to national and international recognition, allowing us to be part of the conversation about where our sector is heading; quite something for a group that started as a single drama workshop in 2005.
I have often joked that we are ‘the most civil of civil rights organisations and the most social of social justice movements’ but it feels less like a joke now and more like a suggestion of the fine line we walk between simply entertaining audiences and trying to change the world. Doing both at the same time is a challenge, but we hope we manage it sometimes.
As ever, we thank you for your ongoing support and your hours invested in watching the work – we hope that, of all the versions of Animal Farm you may have ever seen, this is the one with the most warmth, heart and jokes. If we’re going to create a new world order, we’ll certainly need a sense of humour…
Richard Conlon, Writer / Director
Cast and Crew
Special thanks to guest voice artist Jeremy Bowen in the role of Old Major.
Humans
Other animals
James Benfield
Matthew Bone,
Teddy Gameson
Joseph Guerrier
Michelle Pluck
George Collingwood,
Grace Hone
Jonny Ling
Daniel Austin
Sue Dashper
George Orwell
Pilkington & Pilkington
Lord Puddington
Lady Puddington
Mr and Mrs Jones
Farmer Ted
Danny Boy
Hildegard
Cows
Bulls
Raven
Sheep
Dogs
Chickens
Benjamin (donkey)
The Cat
Muriel (goat)
Clare Talks, Francesca Collins
Ryan Nicholas, Ezekiel Tejevo
Katy Francis
Neil White, Darcy Goulston, David Hunt, Chris Pearce
Paul Smith, James Spencer
Ellie Moody, Mary Richards
Ali Sinclair-Wilson
Alice Peck
Jennie Grover
Cast change: Joseph Guerrier had to withdraw due to ill health so Jack Porter played Lord Puddington.
Horses
Pigs
Napoleon
Snowball
Hench Pig
Squealer
Minimus
Tom Hatchett
Anna Brisbane
Andy Canning
Kym Nash
Ros Davies
Boxer
Clover
Mollie
Felix
Sam Dace
Katie Appleford
Jane Chadwick
Neil Bennet
Crew
Costumes and puppet
Audio visuals
Lighting design
Set, lights and production
Singing assistance
Rehearsal assistance
Written by
Directed by
Polly Perry
Django Pinter
Natalie Psillou
Mark Pyke
Nick Duncombe, Clare Talks
Olivia Murphy
Richard Conlon and the cast
Richard Conlon and Rebecca Godden
Gallery
Images below from rehearsal by Mike Hall
Additional performance images below by Rob Coates
Performances
Blue Apple Theatre’s Animal Farm was performed at Theatre Royal Winchester
Wednesday 12 July at 7.30pm
Thursday 13 July at 7.30pm
Friday 14 July at 7.30pm
Livestream webcast performance
Friday 14 July 2023 at 7.30pm
A subtitled recording of this will be made available on YouTube in due course: https://youtu.be/zFbJQ4Mb83g
Feedback
Audience feedback was extremely positive. Here is a small selection of audience comments:
“Inspiring, exhilarating, fun, lively, thought-provoking.”
“Entertaining, inclusive, supportive, warm.”
“Wonderful, happy, inspiring, hopeful.”
“Amazing, heart-warming, made me feel warm and fuzzy!”
“Wow! Never, ever, underestimate a person with disabilities. Everyone is unique and capable of amazing things in their own way.”
“Thankyou!! Passionate, enthusiastic performances by all cast members. Actors worked really well together. The show was very enjoyable and humour was effective and poignant. Very engaging. Enjoyed the songs, rousing and involved the audience.”
“Illuminating. Fun. Hilarious.”
“Engaging, broken down well, professional.”
“Thought provoking. Funny. Fast paced. Close to the book and close to the spirit of the book.”
“Loved the support of cast members for each other.”
“Stimulating and thought provoking.”
“I liked the music. And the jokes were good.”
“So enjoyed and wanted to cry at the end as it was so good.”
“This was my favourite Blue Apple performance to date!! Animal Farm was incredibly light and humorous - and really felt this brought out the actors personalities and styles really well. Playing animals was incredible creative and really played to the actors' strengths!”
“Great show - good choice, well adapted, fine direction and really well acted by all! Thank you Blue Apple!”
“
Delighted to be part of this excellent production.
As the voice of Old Major,
the wise old philosopher pig.”
“Very touching! Many thanks. Great honour to be asked to be part of the production as the voice of Old Major”
“Wonderful to be introduced to Orwell himself, James authentic with typewriter moustache and dark brown locks.
Loved all the characters, animals and farmers. Their own individual and ensemble acting, singing, dancing and character development was most impressive and really brought the story to us all. So clever to sometimes wear a hood and sometimes not.
The set was again so very good, conjuring up the farmyard plus the stairs from which to lord it over others. Really loved the projected words too and the now you see it now you don’t windmill.
Pass on appreciation too re self composed music, (though Kalinka was a brainwave to include) surtitles, lighting as well as costumes and that amazing puppet!
If you could bottle last night’s finale few minutes of pure joy, then I think everyone would want a daily injection of that for the rest of their lives - it was fizzing! ”
Acknowledgements
Blue Apple’s Animal Farm has been made possible through financial support from Arts Council England, Brighter Life (Sun Life) Community Programme, Persimmon Community Champions, Winchester City Council Small Grants Scheme and Hampshire County Councillors Grant Scheme.
We are grateful to all our funders and donors for their support, including: National Lottery Community Fund, Winchester City Council, Hampshire County Council, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation, The Perivoli Foundation and for the generous in-kind support provided by the University of Winchester and the University of Southampton.
We also extend our thanks to Mole Valley Farmers in Winchester and also to Manor Farm, Bursledon for the loan of equipment.
