An Allegory for All Ages
The 7th and 10th of October 2016 saw a production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm staged by The Mustard Seed Art Company. Audiences who caught the play adapted from the famous novel at Gomant Vidya Niketan (Margao) and Kala Academy (Panaji), were fortunate indeed. Those acquainted with Orwell’s novel, written in 1945, will certainly make connections with its allegory which retells the political scenario of the time, with communism hailed as the answer to society’s problems. The novel mirrors the events that took place from before the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the rule of Stalin. The satirical novel, by his own admission, is Orwell’s first deliberate attempt to use literature towards a political revelation. The play produced by The Mustard Seed Art Company was adapted for theatre from the novel by Peter Hall. The play opens with old Major, the boar, fomenting the spirit of rebellion among the farm animals with his tirade against humans. After old Major dies, the younger pigs Napoleo