Theatre
& Stage
reviews by SalsaChicago.com critic Al Bresloff
Animal Farm
(thru November 7th)
Bailiwick
Repertory Theater is revisiting the classical
musical "Animal Farm". This play premiered
at the Bailiwick in 1987 and now 17 years
later, it has an even more powerful impact
on the audience. Based on George Orwell's
1946 masterpiece, Animal Farm is the riveting
story of a revolution staged by the animals
on Mr. Jone's farm. The story is indeed ripe
with underlying social commentary and political
humor (the reason for its greater impact).
The animals in this cast are very able performers,
many switching between characters and costumes
from scene to scene. The pigs are the leaders
of the revolution and even they have political
situations as one takes over the command and
thus the farm (and the animals). As the story
progresses, we see that the pigs take over
along with the dogs and the other animals
become the "workers". At the end, all of the
rules that were a reason for the revolution
have been changed or are gone and what appeared
to be a democracy is indeed not so. Fear and
terror were the original themes and today
they are even more present- it truly hits
home.
Director David
Zak has assembled a fine cast led by the strong
performances of Margaret A. Dunn, Rus Rainear
and James Adkinson as the pigs. Gina Louisa
Cappetta is a wonderful Muriel, Elizabeth
Christine Tanner (Mollie) and Sarah Ann Kinsey
in a multitude of roles. Eric Appleton's barnyard
set is very realistic (even the smells appeared
to be that of a farm) and Sandy Lazar's costumes
while simple were just right. The use of crutches,
canes and other implements as front legs worked
very well and the actors carried this part
off with ease. There were a few lighting lapses
and there were a few times that the audience
would have preferred mikes, but over all this
is a production that will appeal to young
and old. Richard Peaslee's music and Adrian
Mitchell's lyrics help to tell the story.
While there are no memorable songs and some
of them were very short, there were some powerful
moments ("Runt of The Litter", "Sugar Candy
Mountain" and "This Isn't What I Wanted").
Animal Farm
will run through November 7th with performances
as follows:
