 |
| Evidence of a Crash - Pre-Performance, the wreckage (Credit: Isabella V.B) |
In a normal theatre, it is easy to tell when the play begins. The lights drop, perhaps there’s music to set the mood, and the curtain rises across the stage. Not so in the bright, early summer light at Regent’s Park’s Open Air Theatre. People visibly jolted at the start of Friday night’s production of Lord of the Flies, and I’m unashamed to admit I was one of them. Everything was big at the beginning – big noise, big smoke, and a huge, wrecked British Airways plane that drew the eye from the moment you walked into the arena. In seconds, though, it became almost claustrophobic, smoke from the wreckage blinding everyone lucky enough to be close to the stage. Engrossed in a chilling play such as this, it was easy to forget that the late afternoon sunshine would fade into darkness, and with it seemingly all the light in the world.
From the fore, the boys – for the actors are simply that, more than half of them making their professional debuts – are forced into an athletically charged piece, Ralph (Alistair Toovey) entertaining with handstands, and Jack (James Clay) and Roger (Matt Ingram) swinging through the mangled set like the savages they eventually become. Nobody is left untested; however, every member of the cast is put through their paces in exhausting movement sequences that are deliberate, yet probably the weakest part of the play – bringing a slightly secondary-school drama to the otherwise almost perfect performance.
From the public-school, highly strung Jack, leader of the school choir and prefect who dissolves into a strangely demonic, almost regressed infant, king of the savages, to his adversary, Ralph, too kind to be a leader, but too angry to let it all go, the children are left on their own to fall into the worst parts of human nature, the stubborn, angry, humiliated parts which are so carefully hidden from the light of day, until they are given free reign.
It is perhaps most noticeable in Roger, beautifully acted by Ingram, the outsider from the school of ‘nowhere’, plugged into his headphones and certainly looking like the oldest there, who has become a chilling, manic and demented boy with wild eyes and a sick disposition,. Even as the drama unfolds, you get a sense that Roger isn’t quite there – both psychologically and socially. Less of an outcast than Piggy (George Bukhari), but still on the fringe because he steps into the gang after everyone else is introduced, he is just as lost as the rest of the boys, no matter how old he seems.
That is the beauty of this adaptation. Flies is usually student fodder, the book that children hate at GCSE; but this is something I doubt anybody could walk away from with dislike in their hearts. The story has been told so many times that it sparks knowledge from a passing reference, but this is different. Yes, we are presented with a group of children – for the actors are simply that, forced into an adulthood destined to fail from the start, but Williams’ adaptation is explosive – literally, with the opening of the second act unimaginably blinding and typically, theatrically savage. It appeals to the audience, whatever their age, because this is a show based on the shades of grey that everyone must face, at least once in their lives.
Lord Of The Flies: Runs through June 18th 2011.
Star Rating: ★★★★★
