LORD OF THE FLIES | STAGE REVIEW
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Thurs 23 Oct
This infamous teenage tale gets the Matthew Bourne treatment in this new dance production of William Golding’s Nobel Prize-winning novel.
A group of schoolboys start their own society when they become stranded on an island and are thrown into an adult-less, ruleless world. There are inevitable power struggles between our protagonist, the likable and mostly level head Ralph, and the charismatic but threatening Jack. The chubby, glasses wearing Piggy is clearly the brains of the bunch but his lack of charm would have stopped him from getting power, even if he wanted it.
The first few days on the island are idyllic, as the boys run around and enjoy their new found freedom. As the story progressed things got darker and darker, and both the performances and the set adapted beautifully to the more sinister tone.
Sam Plant created a fantastic Piggy – an anxious character who is trying his best to do what he believes is the sensible thing. He portrayed Piggy perfectly as a boy scared but determined and I couldn’t have imagined the character better myself.
Danny Reubens was also an excellent Jack as he slowly made his face and movements more and more manic, and I found him increasingly interesting to watch as he escalated into savagery. Sam Archer did a good job as Ralph, who is arguably a much plainer character, and made him heartfelt and likable.
Layton Williams created an incredible representation of the innocent and earthy Simon; he did a suburb job of maintaining the characters softness especially in a hallucinatory dance with a pig’s head.
The true stars of the show, however, were the young dancer. This production did something different with its performers in that some of them are professional dancers but a large portion of them are local kids who are dance novices. Watching the show, however, you would never have guessed. They all kept in time, moved in unison and portrayed their roles with great emotion. Particular mentions should be made of Callum Geddes who was adorable as a terrified little boy and Jevan King who had the unenviable role of the hunted pig.
The show was true to the book and retained a lot, there were some deviation but they were often clever and done with a lot of respect to the text. For example when the boys first crash on the island the first thing they do is all get their phones out – not something that happened in the 1954 book but certainly a natural reaction if it were to happen now. The book’s iconic conch shell (which becomes a symbol of order and civilisation) was replaced with an empty oil drum with a shell logo upon it which I thought was a fantastic nod to Golding’s work.
Some of the scenes in the first act had a lot going on and, although I understood that it was meant to portray a sense of joyous mayhem, I felt that I was having too much thrown at me at once. There was no way I could have taken in every bit it and I wasn’t a fan of having to choose where my attention should lie. This was a minor flaw, however, it what was overall a captivating and heartfelt rendition of Lord Of The Flies and was an issue completely absent in the second act.
Matthew Bourne has an extraordinary talent for creating dance productions that appeal to those who wouldn’t consider themselves ‘into dance’. He has an eye for storytelling and portraying deep characters through movement alone and that was an aspect that was ever apparent in Lord Of The Flies. The fact he managed to achieve this with novice dancers is even more impressive.
words HEATHER ARNOLD
Lord Of The Flies, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, until Sat 25 Oct. Tickets: £16-£34. Info: www.wmc.org.uk
