 Animal farm - with Lizzie Wort
"A brilliant adaptation which delights with its physical grace and artistry. It's complex and entirely theatrical; a combination of bravura acting and poetic storytelling which milks new nuance and meaning." (The Scotsman)
Animal Farm is perhaps the century's most important work of political satire. It has been translated into over 70 languages and is on academic syllabuses all over the world. Guy Masterson's unique SOLO theatrical interpretation succeeded in bringing the book to life in a dramatic physical storytelling that has won world-wide acclaim.
This solo adaptation, with the fabulous Lizzie Wort at the reins, continues to draw sell-out audiences and appeal to all ages. Lizzie brings a dancer's grace to the piece and maintains the powerful theatricality that took the piece to the West End, throughout the United Kingdom, and all over the world, including India and New Zealand, to Hong Kong, Trinidad, Greece and Macedonia.
With a set of only a wooden box - or sometimes (where possible) - a bale of hay, Lizzie (backed up by brilliant sound and light effects) animates the story with clarity, power and truth, with each animal instantly recognisable as the narrative unfolds. The simplicity and magic of Orwell's fairytale and his allegorical message of betrayed idealism is conveyed with blinding relevance proving the work to be as important today as it was 50 years ago.
Animal Farm - Lizzie Wort reviews:
"From the moment she sets off, Wort is like a dynamo on the stage. Trotting and skipping one way and the other, flitting between characters, contorting her face to bring the whole farm to life. Her energy and vitality testify to her own amusement and that is itself a joy to behold. ... Masterson's production does true justice to Orwell's original, confirming its timeless quality." (Metro)
 "It's a very demanding piece, over an hour and a half long, and it's a lot to ask of one actor, to tell the story of Orwell's novel in lots of different voices, with a considerable amount of physicality, and at a cracking pace. Wort handles it well: she is ballet-trained and that gives her the physical resources necessary. It's a very impressive performance." (About British Theatre)
"Any actress who can hold an audience in the palm of her hand while she impersonates animals for an hour and forty minutes must have talent. The rather extraordinary Lizzie Wort brings Orwell's novel vividly to life... political doublespeak and spin doctoring have never been stronger. Thought-provoking entertainment for all." (Daily Mail)
"Animal Farm is as essential a warning today as it was fifty years ago... Orwell's book is perhaps more correct now in its outlook than it was at the time... It's all come to pass exactly as it shows... But it could never happen here, could it?" (The List)
"ANIMAL MAGIC!" (The Herald)
"A brilliant adaptation which delights with its physical grace and artistry. It's complex and entirely theatrical; a combination of bravura acting and poetic storytelling which milks new nuance and meaning." (The Scotsman)
"This is Jackanory for adults!... A real treat!" (BBC Radio)
Biographies:
Guy Masterson (adaptor)
Tony Boncza (director)
 Lizzie Wort (performer)
Lizzie Wort took over the performance of Animal Farm from Guy Masterson in 2001 and has since played at the Edinburgh Fringe and on a major domestic tour.
Lizzie trained at Elmhurst Ballet School and Bretton Hall, University of Leeds, graduating in 2000. Her winning performance in the Junior Southern Area Ballet Competition in 1986 inspired Dame Betti Vaccani to create the Joy of Dance Award for her, which still exists today; each year a painting is passed onto a new winner.
Other performances include Helena in Look Back in Anger, Constanze Amadeus, Hermione The Winter's Tale, The Judge The Exception and the Rule) and Calonice Lysistrata.
Lizzie is also an accomplished stilt-walker and street entertainer, and has performed in various Commedia dell'Arte improvised comedy performances in the part of Arlecchino.
Her first one-woman show, Cooking the Catholic Way inspired by Dario Fo played at the C Venues during the Edinburgh Festival 2000 to great notices.
George Orwell (author)
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in India. Educated Eton College 1917. In 1921 he served in the Imperial Police of Burma which inspired his first novel Burmese Days eventually published in 1935. From 1930, he worked as a schoolteacher, private tutor and bookshop assistant while writing articles and reviews for several publications. His second book (but first to be published) Down And Out In Paris And London was written under his new pseudonym George Orwell in 1933.
Commissioned in 1936 to visit areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire to write The Road To Wigan Pier - a passionate study of the plight of the jobless, published in 1937, followed by Keep The Aspidistra Flying. In late 1936, Orwell join the Republican POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War where he was seriously wounded by a bullet to the throat.
Orwell returned again to England in 1938, escaping from Spain through the Pyrenees. His next book Homage To Catalonia recorded his experiences. In 1939, in Morocco, he wrote Coming Up For Air - a defence of the individual against big business. During the remainder of World War II he served in the Home Guard and broadcast for the BBC Eastern Service and from 1943 onwards he also worked freelance for The Observer and Manchester Evening News. Finally, he took a post as Literary Editor of The Tribune where he regularly contributed political commentary. The death of his first wife in 1945 coincided with the publishing of Animal Farm which brought him immediate international recognition. His final and equally notorious parable illustrating his dislike of totalitarianism, Nineteen Eighty Four, was published in early 1949. At this time he was taken seriously ill with tuberculosis and, in January 1950, shortly after marrying Sonja Bronwell, he died... Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty Four have since been translated into over seventy languages. Animal Farm remains the highest selling paperback of all time.
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