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| Lord of the Flies, from left, Lily Willmott, Joshua James, Ty McKenzie, Illyah Mirzaei ,Alex Wilson, Brandon Goodwin. Photo Eve Murray |
Lord of the Flies comes from William Golding’s 1954 novel but I reckon a whole generation were traumatised by their first viewing of Peter Brook’s 1963 uncompromising black and white film version. Canberra Rep under directors Caitlin Baker and Lachlan Houen takes on Nigel Williams’ stage version and show it is still a fable to depress anyone struggling to have an upbeat view of human nature.
Some kind of war has caused the evacuation of a group of very English schoolboys, including a choir. Their plane crashes on a deserted tropical island and they have to fend for themselves. The only adult around is a dead pilot hanging from a parachute harness.
The class division that quickly raises its head pushes any organisational solution aside. Piggy (Winsome Ogilvie) is the one with the most sensible ways of coping with their situation. He proposes meetings and taking turns; whoever is holding the conch he and Ralph (Joshua James) found has the right to speak.
But Piggy is a glasses wearing unathletic asthma suffering boy with a lower class accent and frequent references to the wisdom of his auntie. He and Ralph are right in their wish to build order but that does not stand well against choir leader Jack and the feral tribe he creates.
This production has a mixed gender cast and that works well, from Ogilvie’s touching and morally right Piggy to those playing some of the younger boys in a large cast. Tara Saxena’s Perceval, bewildered very young schoolboy in neat uniform at the beginning and disintegrating child at the end, particularly catches the spirit of that little boy’s fear and confusion.
Roger. Photo Eve Murray
As Ralph, Joshua James
has the right good humour and strength, sensitive (albeit after the event) to
the moral failure in betraying Piggy’s nickname. As Jack, leader of the choir and eventual
leader of those boys who choose a feral, tribal existence, Ty McKenzie has real
presence but the character could reach for even more stature.
The setting is a little bewildering and not as atmospheric and surreal as it could be; part jungle, part ruined house, with the dead parachutist hovering in the shadows at the back. But the cast make good use of the levels. Of course there needs to be a high place for Piggy to fall from and here it is the top of the house. That moment is well played but one misses the cliffs and the ocean that washes Piggy away.
And then the desperate battle is brought to a halt by the arrival of adult order in the form of a Naval Officer (John Stead), in white uniform, and the boys, even Jack, fall back into school lines, as the voice of adult authority chides them while assuming that it’s all been a game.
Lord of the Flies remains a morality play for the present in Canberra Rep’s well sustained production.
