Animal Farm (based on the novel by George Orwell)
The immersive performance continues the parable of liberation, which is corrupted by unscrupulous agitators and transformed into a totalitarian system. The dystopian events of the novel lie far in the past. The totalitarian system is established. The pigs see themselves as having reached "the end of history" and agitate their pupils/the audience with an ideologically distorted version of the animal revolution. In a kind of cabinet of curiosities, in which alleged props, trophies and artifacts of the revolution are exhibited, the new rulers develop their totalitarian ideologies in humanizing school English. Those who are bored are allowed to move freely or can retreat into the "black box". But in this system there is no outside, the pigs are damn clever - and they dance very well.
The performance, based on motaives from the novel by Georg Orwell, is designed for an audience aged 14 to 18. The production was awarded the JugendStückePreis at the Heidelberg Stückemarkt.
Credits
Idea, realisation: Showcase Beat Le Mot / Music: Albrecht Kunze / Choreography: Minako Seki / Constructions: Alexej Tchernyi, Atia Trofimoff / Masks: Alexej Tchernyi, Leonid Chernobelskiy / Video: Ariel Efraim Ahsbel / Dramaturgy: Eva-Maria Reimer / Directing Assistant: Johanna Thomas / Production Management: Olaf Nachtwey
Animal Farm is a production by Showcase Beat Le Mot with Theater an der Parkaue Berlin, JES Stuttgart, Theater Oberhausen, Mousonturm Frankfurt, Kampnagel Hamburg und dem Forum Freies Theater (FFT) Düsseldorf.
Review
"It may well be that some people will have a lot to think about when they emerge from this theater event. About people and power. About animals and people. About German and English. Everyone had a great time."
(taz – die tageszeitung, Katharina Grazin – translation SCBLM)
