Animal Farm hit the stage in the McAneny Theater on Thursday October 24, running through Saturday night with one last production of the hilarious yet tragic rendition of the story. Based on George Orwell’s novel, published in 1945, the play centers around the animals of Manor Farm, who revolt against their human owner, Mr. Jones, to establish their independence and equality for all animals. Soon, however, the animals find themselves in even worse conditions than before, as their pig leaders, the original spearheads of the revolution, become increasingly corrupt and tyrannical. Eventually, the play ends with the animals gazing at the pigs inside the farmhouse, wearing clothing and drinking alongside the very humans they had revolted against.
Throughout the creation of the play, the cast members had to learn how to navigate the show’s somber, deep message. Senior Humzah Ladiwala had a particularly extensive exploration of his character Napoleon, the head pig who ultimately becomes the farm’s tyrannical ruler. Ladiwala expressed that while he struggled with connecting to a reprehensible figure such as Napoleon, he found a way to connect to the character’s backstory and desires, noting, “I believe that he [Napoleon] looked at what had been done to him and decided, you know what, I want that,” highlighting how he found an understanding of the character’s motivations to help him portray Napoleon. Furthermore, he emphasized how the cast found a way to explore the show by using a more comedic style. He remarks, “We found the humor in it. The dark stuff speaks for itself. It’s finding the lighter side that’s the challenge.”
The novel also played a huge role as inspiration for the actors. Junior Ishaani Singh, who played Snowball, the former pig leader of Animal Farm before getting exiled by Napoleon, notes how she used the book “to get a feel for the character,” which she then channeled into her acting. She even went as far as listening to the audiobook, examining how Snowball’s voice was portrayed and incorporating that into her own performance.
Needless to say, the heavy themes of the show really stood out in this year’s production, the actors dealing with concepts such as liberty, justice, and corruption. Singh adds how she believed the show offered its audience the message that “Narratives matter. What people are telling you, what they’re saying, it really matters,” referring to how the pigs twisted past events to manipulate the other animals into blindly following them. Director of US Theater Stan Cahill expresses how he was pleasantly surprised by how the actors viewed Animal Farm, stating, “the material that I thought that was a little old and stuffy, there was a hunger to make it new and relevant.” In addition, he notes, “Hopefully the audience felt that their time was well spent in the theater. I hope that they were impressed by the sheer talent of our student cast and crew, and I hope they left with questions about the world we live in…really.”
