REVIEW: Animals, Theatre 503 ✭✭✭

Animals

Theatre 503

13 April 2015

3 Stars

Review by James Garden

With the recent news that the Florida and Wisconsin state governments have banned employees of their state level environmental protection agencies from using phrases like “climate change” or “global warming” in any official capacity, “Animals,” now playing at Theatre503, is a particularly prescient and fascinating piece of political theatre.

In a fully privatised world, where being over 60 and “diminished” are worse than government sanctioned and organised murder by “The Utility,” 77-year-old Norma, her live-in carer, Joy, and their neighbour Helen, spend most of their days completing crosswords, gathering “treasure” (sandwich bread), and catching “windfalls” for the rest of the “Sandwich Circle.” Until one day, a young girl, Maya, one day away from turning 18 and being “tested” to decide her entire future, comes knocking, having lost her father, Noah, the new local “Utility Inspector.”

If many of these euphemisms and newspeak styled phrases seem a bit obtuse, it’s because they are—but that’s the world of dystopian satire and it has been from the days of Huxley and Orwell, straight through to the present with Kazuo Ishiguro, Suzanne Collins, and now Emma Adams. But this brave new world gets slightly lost in its obsession with new phrasing. The brilliantly biting satire and social commentary already in place could function extremely well as the thriller it wants to be if the excessive amount of new vocabulary didn’t accidentally light a metaphorical large neon sign that reads “THIS IS WHERE WE’RE ENDING UP AT THE END, BY THE WAY!” But that’s nit-picking. Animals is a strong piece of writing that could only get better with further revision.

Many of the performances in this production are stellar. Milly Thomas, as Maya, is the perfect embodiment of a stunted womanchild, on the cusp of discovering the harsh truths of her world. Marlene Sidaway and Sadie Shimmin give wonderfully lovable performances as Norma and Joy, at least until their platonic riff on the Mrs. Lovett/Sweeney Todd relationship creepily reveals itself.

Steve Hansell is good, but sometimes it feels as if his performance is too big for Theatre503. He’s the embodiment of the state apparatus that kills people who have outlived their usefulness, and the cold bureaucratic and what could be quintessentially English nature of such a position that could be truly menacing is lost in the size of his work. However, this seems to be a frequent problem at Theatre503, if one can call it that—there are no cheap seats in this gloriously intimate space, so it can be jarring when performances are played to its imaginary 2nd balcony.

The heart of the piece, though, is found in the performance of Cara Chase, as Helen—the next door neighbour, whose relationship with Maya develops into the truly heart breaking masterpiece at the centre of this crazy future. Chase’s performance embodies both a youth and fragile yet powerful elderly nature that is the meat of this work—the message that there’s no such thing as being diminished by age, only mentality.

Speaking of this message, BritishTheatre.com received an odd email shortly after the press night of “Animals” at Theatre503. There were a few flubbed lines throughout the press night—mostly seemingly caused by the complex nature of the satirical newspeak throughout the work. Very quickly, the PR team went into action, almost seeming to apologize for the errors of the older members of the cast:

“ just wanted to send a quick note along side this to say that the writer, Emma Adams, feels strongly about the representation of women on and off the stage. Animals includes three women in their 60s and 70s - for the integrity of the piece, the team chose to work with a cast including women of the ages depicted in the play. The play is formally challenging and any requisite dramaturgical changes have been difficult because they compounded the learn. The creative team have learnt a lot over the three-week rehearsal process about how to work with this age-group. These valuable lessons will inform working practices in the future and, as a result, Theatre503 are now more encouraged to continue working with this demographic, particularly given their new senior writers group.”

This apologist statement weirdly undermined the night. Animals is a brand new and complex work that needs significant further polishing if it is to be remounted anywhere—and it absolutely deserves a longer run with a more extended development process, because it really is just that good as a concept. The performances are all solid, even if the language was slightly flubbed, but such things are to be expected. By apologising for the learning curve caused by working with older members of the theatre community, practically within minutes of the curtain going down, the creative team has undercut their central message of the work. As Helen says as she pleads for her life with Noah, the older generation is still here, living and breathing, and has much to teach. So perhaps this creative team should get out of their way and let them.

Animals runs at Theatre 503 until May 2, 2015