Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Luke Ward Wilkinson, Anthony Roberts, Freddie Watkins, Keenan Munn-Francis, Thiago Pigatto, Fellipe Pigatto, Dylan Llewellyn, Michael Ajao, Yossi Goodlink, Matthew Castle, Guy Abrahams, Benedict Barker.
Salisbury has the honour of being the home or innovation of many things and people, whether they realise it or not, whether they like it or not, however one of the greatest to ever come out of there was the work of Cornishman William Golding and undoubtedly the allegorical tale of Lord of the Flies stands out as one of the finest pieces of English Literature of the 20th Century. To see it in action in the everyday, in the hearts of those oppressed by war and the turning of young minds in to that of the savage when left without the influence of a guiding adult is possible but distant, when it is brought to life on the stage, the savagery, the innate intimidation and tormenting descent into factions, then Lord of the Flies becomes a towering work in which the feeling of bullying oppression becomes all too clear.
Nigel Williams adaptation of William Golding’s story is rugged, beautifully paced and a triumph of ingenuity, of allowing young actors the absolute freedom to behave in a way that not only catapults the idea of the descent of humanity into the audience’s thoughts but asks just how far does this innateness go, like a series of studies into human behaviour, when the calming influence of some authority is not present, the law of the jungle, literary becomes a disturbing truth.
Just how deep this savagery is allowed to go remains unclear but in Lord of the Flies at the Playhouse Theatre, the notion of oppression cuts deep, the terror palpable on the faces of the boys who try their damndest to stay in the realms of civility and decency and the anger, unrelenting, unopposed and dedicated to chaos, of the boys who find their humanity boiled down to nothing but that of the animals they hunt in the island’s forest; almost ritual, a ceremony of action in which there can only be one triumphant winner.
With such a young cast on stage, the eagerness to perform such a seminal piece of work is palpable, a rite of passage within itself and in Luke War-Wilkinson as Ralph, Freddie Watkins as the leader of the hunting party Jack and Matthew Castle as Roger, the face of growing anarchy within one person’s own slide into madness, the cast performed with utter conviction and a sheer honesty as they captured the dual nature of such exposure to man’s greatest threat to its own survival.
A play of incredible depth and brutality, wonderfully performed, disturbing and thoughtful, Lord of the Flies is just sublime.
Ian D. Hall