Dear E-news reader
ANIMAL FARM
Weds 21st Nov – Sun 24th Nov at 8.00pm (Bar open from 7.30pm)
Sun 25th Nov at 5:00pm (Bar open 4:30pm)

Too hot to cook?
Have a look at our dinner and show package
Coffee now also available at the bar

The Townsville performances of Animal Farm will be the last on the current tour. Crossroad Arts opened the tour in home-town Mackay, and are now playing in Cairns.  The opening night saw….. 


Donnielle Fatnowna as the dictator pig Napoleon

A rapt audience gave the opening night performance of Animal Farm a standing ovation last Friday night at the JUTE Theatre.
 
This bold theatrical adaptation of the classic George Orwell novel was written and directed by Steve Mayer-Miller of Crossroad Arts in Mackay and featured stunning performances.
 
Sue Hayes and Anthony Ring play multiple roles in the production, but their principal characters are the pigs Snowball and Squealer, who are ringleaders in the revolt by the animals to take over Manor Farm and gain freedom from their human captors.

The other actors, Donnielle Fatnowna and Simon Hapea, play the dictator pig Napoleon and the hard working carthorse Boxer, as well as other roles that merge seamlessly together to bring this powerful story to life.
 

The audience gasped at times during the opening night performance as the actors portrayed their animal characters with such eerie accuracy, using gestures, facial expressions and callipers to indicate four legs, that is was as though they had actually morphed before our eyes.
 
At one point towards the end of the story, when the animal revolutionaries have established a new kind of oppressive hierarchy and they begin to take on the characteristics of the humans, the pig Squealer tries to walk on two legs.  The sight of actor Anthony Ring teetering on his imagined trotters was so utterly believable and so sinister in its symbolism that its effect on the audience was palpable.  


Cairns Post reviewed it as “creative, intelligent and totally engrossing...go see it!”. Glyn Davies of Arts Nexus describes Animal Farm as “simply superb...deserves to be seen nationwide”

The full review can be read on the JUTE Blog:
http://www.juteblog.com/2007/11/04/review-animal-farm/
 
The story is set up at the beginning from the point of view of a group of dissident Ukrainian actors who stage a production of Animal Farm, despite the ban on the novel in the Soviet state in 1947. The actors then move into the story of Animal Farm, on a minimal but very effective set which allows the audience to imagine the different animals and elements of the farm with the help of clever visual props.
The enduring messages of Animal Farm – that power corrupts and language is power – come across in a very clear and relevant way in this production.  In the charged political environment of a Federal Election in Australia, when rhetoric abounds,  Animal Farm should not be missed.  

DINNER AND SHOW PACKAGES Thurs, Fri and Sat
treat yourself to a night without cooking!

Townsville: Old Magistrates Court Theatre, (Cnr Sturt and Stokes Sts City)

Weds 21 – Sat 24 at 8pm (Dinner served at 7.15pm – bookings essential0
Thurs 22 at 11.30am also
Sun 25 at 5pm

Adults $28, Concessions $21, School Students $9, Dress Circle $18.
Dinner ( 2 courses plus wines) $28

Book on line any time at www.tropicsun.com.au
Or ring 47215 433

ANIMAL FARM is a Crossroad Arts production from Mackay. It is toured through the Theatre to the Edge network in association with JUTE Theatre (Cairns) and Tropic Sun. Theatre to the Edge receives funding from Arts Regional Touring Service [ARTS]

Cheers

Jean-Pierre and Lorna