From the moment we enter the theatre, our focus is drawn to two black L-shaped platforms on which the performance will take place. Illuminated only by house lights, the resemblance the stage has to a coffin and tombstone is ingeniously disquieting.

Sound bites of recent political discourse herald the stage lights, but this is the only modernisation to the caustic satire by George Orwell. Director Geordie Brookman has wisely resisted the temptation to alter the classic; this performance is an almost verbatim, truncated version of the novella first published in 1945. Animal Farm is Brookman’s final show as Artistic Director of State Theatre Company South Australia and he’s decided to go out with a very big bang.

Renato Musolino in State Theatre Company South Australia’s Animal Farm. Photo © James Hartley

Maintaining the work’s vital dramatic irony by adhering to the third-person narration, a floating head storyteller commences the terrifyingly ageless beast fable about the breakdown of political ideology and misuse of power, packed with apathy, propaganda and corruption. The lilting voice almost lulls us into a false sense of security before we are transported, with a somewhat rude...