An Actor's Reflection: George Orwell's Animal Farm

     My initial assumptions about working on this production of George Orwell's Animal Farm is that it would certainly be fun, but probably not very intellectually stimulating or challenging. I could not have been more wrong. I grew exponentially as an actor through this experience in ways that I could not have possibly foreseen.

      One of the most interesting aspects of working on Animal Farm was the uniqueness in the dual worlds of the play. There was obviously the world of the farm taken right out of George Orwell’s novel, but there was also the Bolshevik political rally telling the story of their people’s plight.

      Each actor was instructed to use research provided as well as independent sources to create a character that would have existed in revolutionary Russia. I came to invent Vasili Shanina, a young man who was fortunate enough to attain a small degree of higher education due to his family’s relatively higher status among the lower class.

      No text was added to assist this bolshevik backstory that we had created for our particular production, the script in its finished draft could just as easily have been used as a completely literal translation of just animals taking over a farm. While we struggled to find balance between these two realities as a company, ultimately it came down to each performer analyzing the effectiveness of the character as far as the effectiveness of storytelling for each particular scene.

      I knew from the start that my first obstacle to overcome would be to seek the truth in the actions of Napoleon the pig. A big question that arose early on was how did Vasili view Napoleon? I answered thus; Vasili had to come from a view of empathy towards the corrupted leadership of the revolution. He did not condone their actions, in fact he outright despised them, but that didn’t mean that he did not understand them. Vasili’s job in the group was to portray how the convictions of an individual who is suddenly given an opportunity for power can become incredibly fragile.

      There were several key moments in the story which would expose Napoleon in very different ways depending on how we chose to play them out. Take for example when Snowball gets expelled from the meeting and Napoleon seizes power. The scene centers around Napoleon and Snowball engaging the crowd of animals by debating over whether to spend the year building a windmill or increasing food production. Originally the argument was concluded with Napoleon giving a signal to the dogs who immediately secure Snowball, beat him in front of the crowd, and drag him off. This clearly demonstrates a secret agenda and reveals that Napoleon never had any intentions of democracy. Upon revisiting the scene we decided to see how it would feel for the dogs to spontaneously attack Snowball without Napoleon’s hand or guidance whatsoever. This leaves Napoleon in a much more interesting  and somewhat vulnerable moment, now that he is faced with deciding in a matter of seconds what fateful road to take.

      The rather intimate engagement of actors with the audience in this production was another aspect I found to be unsettling and fascinating. From day one we were told that this was going to be an exercise in environmental theatre in that the audience is part of the world, not merely spectators. Previously I had experiences this level of audience participation in an interactive murder mystery dinner theatre piece. I do not look back on that experience particularly fondly; nerve-racking would be more accurate. My shortcomings in that show can be boiled down to simply a lack of focus.

      Rehearsing audience interaction is certainly a difficult task. While the best way is to look for a member of the technical or production team sitting in the house during a run through and make eye contact with them, this is not always possible. Even when you can engage them they are not concentrated on being entertained by your performance, they are concentrated on their job. This was why disciplined focus played such an important role. I had to be confident in my character in order to be open and receptive enough to target a complete stranger (or even worse a family member or friend) as Vasili Shanina.

      Working on this show has once more kept me craving theatre. I came out with exactly what I look for in every project; a highly unique experience that forced me to explore methods and aspects of my craft I had never previously had to refine.