Animal Farm with Guy Masterson.
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷 – 5 out of 5 glasses of human wine!
In full disclosure, I know Guy Masterson. He’s presented four of my plays at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and he is the sole actor in my version of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol.’
But there’s a reason why ‘A Christmas Carol’ is doing so well, wowing the critics, appearing off Broadway in New York and touring the UK every year. Obviously – it’s my brilliant writing and directing (!)
But of course, Masterson is my actor of choice. And my reasons for choosing Guy are completely obvious here in this visceral, brilliant interpretation of George Orwell’s classic.
Masterson’s show of ‘Animalism’ was perfect at the atmospheric Wiltons Music Hall. And now you have another chance to see it in Edinburgh – for one night only! This adaptation with director Tony Boncza makes for a sometimes chilling evening. Four legs good, two legs bad isn’t always correct if those two legs are Masterson’s. Talking to the director in the bar before the show in London, I asked if he’d cast anyone else in the part. “No”, he replied. “I can’t imagine anyone else but Guy doing this show now.”
And I understand what he means. Masterson, dressed in a plain boiler suit, has an uncanny physicality, which has, if anything, got stronger as he’s aged. He presents all the Orwell characters with verve and confidence, adding occasional contemporary additions to the mix which never detract from the original, but signpost how Orwell’s tale is still so relevant today.
“We are a Grandfather” is a quote that many may not remember, but was a seminal moment in the reign of Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – the first time she started using the Royal ‘we’ and prompting comments about how she saw herself. The dogs deciding there will be ”be no more debate,” remind us of how Boris Johnson prorogued parliament – effectively shutting it down when he couldn’t get his own way. We have good old reliable Boxer… who accepts everything he’s told, like most of us do… and works himself to death for the good of all; then the sheep who mindlessly repeat the political rhetoric that suits the Party Line. Comrade Squealer is a Special Advisor if ever I saw one. And of course, we have politics straight out of the Donald Trump and others, playbook. Blame Farmer Jones. It’s all HIS fault. Not ours. Until, of course, we realise how the political lies work! Or at least some of us do!
It’s funny, relevant and unmissable. Guy Masterson, Tony Boncza and George Orwell. A winning combination. Vote for them! Buy a ticket!
https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/animal-farm
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