Animal Farm E-Book

George Orwell

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: NHB Modern Plays
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 88

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

'All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.' When the animals in the farmyard rebel against their tyrannical farmer and take control of the farm, they hope to create a world where they can be equal, happier and free. But as power shifts and a new leader emerges, they soon face the age-old question: what does it really mean to be equal? Exploring loss of identity, the seductive allure of privilege, and the corrupting nature of political power, George Orwell's Animal Farm is a classic story of rebellion and treachery, and a timely reminder of the importance of resistance. Tatty Hennessy's adaptation received its professional premiere in 2025, directed by Amy Leach, co-produced by Leeds Playhouse and Stratford East in association with Nottingham Playhouse, and performed at all three theatres. It was commissioned and first performed by the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain in 2021.

Leseprobe

George Orwell

ANIMAL FARM

an adaptation by

Tatty Hennessy

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production

Characters

Animal Farm

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

This adaptation of Animal Farm was first performed by the NYT REP Company in a co-production with Royal & Derngate in association with Mike Shepherd (Kneehigh) at the Royal & Derngate, Northampton, as part of their Made in Northampton season, on 17 May 2021. The cast was as follows:

PETUNIA

Tiajna Amayo

BENJAMIN

Francesca Amewudah-Rivers

BOXER

Will Atiomo

BLUE

Ishmel Bridgeman

SQUEALER

Matilda Rae

JONES/PILKINGTON/ MINIMUS

Connor Crawford

OLD MAJOR

Alexandra Hannant

MINTY

Jack Humphrey

MILO

James-Eden Hutchinson

NUTMEG

Tife Kusoro

NAPOLEON

Jack Matthew

CLARA

Nkhanise Phiri

TESS

Jadie Rose Hobson

MOLLIE/PATHÉ VOICE

Will Stewart

CLOVER

Adeola Yemitan

SNOWBALL

Ben Wilson

Director

Ed Stambollouian

Set & Costume Designer

Jasmine Swan

Lighting Designer

Zoe Spurr

Choreographer

Vicki Igbokwe

Composer

John Elliott

Sound Designer

Xana

Musical Director

Jordan Clarke

Fight Director

Enric Ortuño

Fight Director

Marcia Carr

The play was revived in a new production by Stratford East and Leeds Playhouse in association with Nottingham Playhouse and first performed at Stratford East, London, on 7 February 2025. The cast was as follows:

CLOVER

Tianah Hodding

MOLLIE

Shakeel Kimotho

SNOWBALL

Robin Morrissey

BENJAMIN

David Nellist

NAPOLEON

Tachia Newall

BOXER

Gabriel Paul

MILO/UNDERSTUDY

Em Prendergast

MINTY

Farshid Rokey

CLARA

Brydie Service

SQUEALER

Tom Simper

JONES/UNDERSTUDY

Kaya Ulasli

OLD MAJOR

Everal A Walsh

BLUE

Joshua-Alexander Williams

Director

Amy Leach

Set and Costume Designer

Hayley Grindle

Lighting Designer

Jai Morjaria

Sound Design and Composition

Khalil Madovi

Movement Director

Kane Husbands

Casting Director

Lucy Casson CDG

Fight Director

Kate Waters

Assistant Director

Jordi M. Carter

Design Assistant

Kate Marshall

Deaf Creative/BSL Consultant

Stephen Collins

Audio Description Consultants

Vicky Ackroyd and Esther Irving

Integrated BSL Interpreter

Rachael Merry

BSL Interpreters (Stratford East) Craig Painting, Katie O’Connor, Bev Wilson, Irmina St Catherine, Sarah Meeks, Emma Hardy, Jess Cooke, Irina Drytchak, Stacey Green

BSL Interpreters (Leeds Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse) Sarah Cox, Alexia Blohm-Pain, Dave Wycherley, Faye Alvi, Emma Dawber, Lauren Lister, Kat Pearson, Julie Thompson

Characters

THE ANIMALS

BENJAMIN, donkey

BLUE, dog

BOXER, horse

CLARA, hen

CLOVER, horse

MILO, pigeon

MINIMUS THE PIG, pig

MINTY, sheep

MOLLIE, horse

NAPOLEON, pig

NUTMEG, pig

OLD MAJOR, pig

SNOWBALL, pig

SQUEALER, pig

THE HUMANS

FARMER JONES

FARMER PILKINGTON

FARMHANDS

The animals in the play all look like us.

The humans don’t look at all like us.

Anyone can play any part.

Assume good intentions for as long as you can.

ACT ONE

Prologue

A cut-glass 1940s Pathé-style newsreader introduces us to life on the farm. It is ludicrously, hyperbolically bucolic. A storybook vision of agriculture.

NEWSREADER. It’s a beautiful day down on the Manor Farm, one of England’s many fine family-run farms out in the bustling countryside. While city folks sleep soundly in their beds, here the farmer gets up at the crack of dawn to make sure the cupboards and plates and stomachs of England are full. While all over the country farms are becoming more mechanised, in this green corner of England, Farmer Jones continues the old ways, shunning expensive machinery and the lure of large-scale automation in favour of tradition, and working in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Let’s meet some of the animals, shall we?

We meet the ANIMALS performing idealised skits of their daily life.

Why, there’s Boxer, the prize carthorse, pulling the plough to ready the soil for planting. And Clover, the mare, by his side, proud mother of many young foals, an important source of income in leaner times. Even sturdy old Benjamin the donkey gets in on the fun.

There’s Mollie, the prize pony, getting dressed up to take the trap into town.

Come late spring these fields are full of gambolling lambs. There’s Minty the sheep, look at him go!

Their thick fleeces sold to make your woolly Christmas jumpers, and the lambs to the market for your Easter lunch.

No flock is complete without a trusty sheepdog to guide them, here’s young Blue learning the ropes. He’s got some way to go!

You’ve heard the saying, ‘go to work on an egg’ – well, that’s the daily grind for Clara and her busy hens. Soft-boiled for me please, ladies.

The smell of swill and soil may not be roses to you and I, but it’s heaven to the pigs.

There’s Squealer and the young porkers, fattening up ready to keep the breakfast tables of England full of quality English bacon.

And Nutmeg and the other gilts, ready for motherhood and piglets of their own with one of two prize breeders – Napoleon and Snowball, extraordinary specimens both.

As OLD MAJOR appears, something in the timbre of the scene shifts. There’s a gruff, hard edge to him. He is older, battle-hardened, his arm is in a sling. He wears ribbons from his prizes, they look a little like war medals. He doesn’t fit in this idyll.

But it’s Old Major who’s the real pride and joy of the farm, a great prize-winning boar, once a fine specimen of a pig, now getting rather white in the whisker.

For season upon season he’s overseen this farm from here in his sty, Farmer Jones’s prize animal.

And speaking of Farmer Jones, here he comes now.

With the appearance of FARMER JONES, the bucolic facade shatters. FARMER JONES is terrifying. Suddenly we are plunged into the reality of life on the farm for the animals: working tirelessly, in fear.

It’s a life of hard work and sacrifice, long days and difficult nights, but the joy and pride that comes of man and nature working together in harmony is well worth the hardship. So here’s to the tenacity of farmers like Jones, and farms like Manor Farm, keeping traditions alive and the nation fed. Long may they continue.

FARMER JONES works them harder and harder. The punishments become harsher and harsher. The ANIMALS can take it no more.

Scene One

The ANIMALS collapse in the old barn, exhausted from the day. OLD MAJOR addresses them.

MAJOR. Friends. We can’t carry on like this much longer. We’re being worked into the ground, every day, endlessly. Mistreated, abused.

CLOVER. He didn’t even feed us this morning.

MOLLIE. He’s probably not well.

CLARA. Right – (Mimes a bottle.) Not well.

NAPOLEON. He’s getting worse.

MAJOR. We shouldn’t have to live like this. We know this soil is fertile, we know these fields could feed us all, and then some, with less work than he forces from us. This farm could support dozens of us living in comfort and dignity.

MOLLIE. Then why doesn’t it?

MAJOR. Because it all goes to him.

MOLLIE. Course it does, he’s the farmer.

MAJOR. Does he farm it? Or do we? Boxer pulls the plough. The hens lay the eggs. The cows give the milk, the sheep their wool. Without our work he’d have nothing. But he gives us nothing for it. Instead he takes, and takes. Clara – how many eggs have you hens laid this year?

CLARA. Oh, too many to count, hundreds.

MAJOR. And how many hatched? How many chicks for you to raise?

CLARA. None, he took them all.

SNOWBALL. Minty, your flock, your brothers. What happened to them?

MINTY. Back of a van. Slaughterhouse.

NAPOLEON. And Clover. What about your foals?

CLOVER. He took them.

NAPOLEON. All of them?

CLOVER. All of them.

MAJOR. Your foals. Your children. Sold. At a year old. And what do you get, in return?

CLOVER. Nothing.

MAJOR. Nothing. What do any of us get in return? For our toil, our sacrifice, our lives? What do we get? We’re worked till we drop, sleep in filth, starving. While he sleeps full and happy in that big house? How is that right?

CLOVER. It isn’t.

MAJOR. So why do we accept it? Every day we get up and keep on accepting it, why?

CLOVER. Major, what else are we supposed to do?

MAJOR. Simple, isn’t it? We get rid of him.

The ANIMALS are shocked.

MOLLIE. Did you hurt your head as well as your leg? He’s the farmer.

CLOVER. What do you mean, ‘get rid of him’?

MAJOR. Just that. Get rid of him. Shake off our harnesses and run him off the farm.

CLARA. Can we do that?

MOLLIE. Of course not. You couldn’t survive without him

MAJOR. Without him? We can’t survive with him. The work is killing us, and even if we survive the labour, the moment we’re too old or… (He raises his injured arm.) ‘lame’ to work, the moment he can’t use us, we’re for it, a bullet in the head, a knife to the throat.

CLOVER. He’d never do that to you.

MAJOR. Yes, Clover. He will. He’s a human. We’re animals. He will always treat us like this. And so will the next farmer. And the farmer after that. Animals will never be free until we get rid of the humans and run the farm ourselves.

CLARA. Us, run the farm?

MAJOR. Think about it. Man cannot lay an egg. He cannot give milk. He can’t pull the plough, certainly not like Boxer. Everything he has, he has because he takes it from us. A farm is its animals.

It should work for us. And if it doesn’t, why should we work for it?

MINTY. He’s got whips. Guns.

NAPOLEON. There’s more of us.

BOXER. Clover. What do you think?

Beat.

CLOVER. I… I don’t know.

Beat.

MAJOR. I had a dream last night where I thought I saw it. This farm, but not this farm. This farm like it could be. If it were ours. Full mangers and clean stalls and everyone looked after. Your foals were there, Clover. And the whole flock. And we were working, yes, but we were working for ourselves, with dignity. Animals, for animals. All of us equal. That life is there. It’s so close. And the only thing standing in the way is that man.