“Pleased to Serve You, Sir” Orwell’s Animal Farm is Revived on Al-Falaki’s Stage
By: Nouran El-Ashry
More than 70 years after the release of George Orwell’s renowned novel Animal Farm, a group of Ain Shams University engineering graduates decided to revive the story on AUC’s Al-Falaki stage on September 27 in a retelling named Pangea.
“We are a group of Ain Shams graduates who had passion for theatre back at university and decided to resume acting after graduation,” said Amr Afifi, Pangea’s director.
Like the plot of the novel, the play revolves around Mr. Jones’ farm, where different animals work as his servants.
The animals on the farm suffer from Jones’ harsh treatment and lack of food provided.
“Pleased to serve you, Sir” was their’ automated response to any instance of oppression by their master.
But unable to bear the weight of this treatment much longer, they then decided to rebel against this system, and when they do, they pick one of the animals to rule instead.
The new ruler gave many promises afterwards, and having fulfilled none of them, the animal farm suffers once again.
The numerous jokes and comical jibes scattered in the dialogue, ironically, only serve to darken the atmosphere as the animals continue to feel the weight of their subservience.
They are left with nothing except the chant of “pleased to serve you, Sir” to their new master.
“We picked one angle from the novel to focus on as it is still relevant to our present day since this whole cycle of oppression is a repetitive one,” Mohamed Adel, the playwright, told The Caravan.
Adel believes the state of the Animal Farm can still be witnessed today in reality in different social and political ways.
Afifi similarly said that Animal Farm was designed to be an allegory of contemporary human life.
“What I like about George Orwell is that he had a vision for the future; that his pieces are still relevant after 70 years.”
He added that Animal Farm tackles the society of human beings in general without being constrained to a certain country or region.
Starting from producing their sounds to imitating their movements and facial expressions that was aided by elaborate makeup, the performers mastered their roles to the extent that one would doubt whether the sounds of the animals were actually coming from the actors on stage or if a soundtrack was playing in the background.
Accompanying the actors was a musical band, set out of the audience’s view, providing the show with sound effects that helped set the ever-darkening mood for the audience.
The dialogue was simple, designed to be relevant to our present time, without deviating from the original piece, even in the characters’ names.
Throughout the play, the audience not only showed enthusiasm and interaction with each scene, but with each character as well.
Maram Mahmoud, one of the attendees, expressed her admiration of the play to The Caravan.
“It was fascinating. The expressions, the music, the decor, everything was just perfect.”
She also stated that she had not read the novel before, but is now interested in reading it after she was amazed with the play.
The one outstanding quality of the play was simply its professionalism. The whole crew worked masterfully and expertly, leaving the audience with smiles on their faces and some with tears on theirs cheeks.
