Olivia Chandler Archives - North West End UK

24Jan

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Animal Farm – Octagon Theatre

George Orwell’s Animal Farm comes to life in a vivid and unsettling adaptation that thrusts the audience into the heart of a revolution. The barnyard is transformed into a stage where animals overthrow their human oppressors, driven by dreams of equality and justice. Yet, as Orwell so keenly observed, power has a way of corrupting even the noblest intentions. What begins as a hopeful uprising soon unravels into a chilling reflection of authoritarianism, manipulation, and the rewriting of truth. Olivia Chandler stands out in her dual roles, first as Mollie, the delightfully vain mare who steals the audience’s attention with her superficial charm, and later as Moses, the revivalist raven whose flamboyant performance oozes charisma and false hope. Meanwhile, Shoroosh Lavasani's portrayal o...

Animal Farm – Hull Truck Theatre

When Snowball the angry, militant “pig” crept menacingly towards me, across the stage of Hull Truck Theatre on Thursday night, I began to think my front-row seat wasn’t such a good thing after all. I was at this popular local theatre to watch a powerful re-telling of George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm - a book I had never read, but, it being a classic, knew the storyline of. Thankfully, Snowball (Samater Ahmed) spared me, directing his anger at the farm’s owner and his master, Mr Jones. The way Jones ran Manor Farm was not to the animals’ liking nor for their benefit, so they overthrow him, take over and create a new set of rules in which “all animals are equal”. However, it soon becomes apparent that the cleverest farm animals are the pigs - Squealer (Killian Macardle), Napo...

Around the World in 80 Days – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Around the World in 80 Days is a brand-new musical adaptation of the classic novel by Jules Verne, written by Kate Ferguson and Susannah Pearse, and directed by Kash Arshad. What a spectacular show, this trio have created! Rarely have I seen a show that is both technically brilliant and so superbly acted, with costumes and set design that are second to none. While the medium of theatre can be a cornucopia of new and innovative ideas, it does have its limitations in terms of how this is presented to the audience. That said, this adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days was absolutely seamless in its visual storytelling, moving from place to place with graceful fluidity and depicting the characters’ journey by land, sea and sky with staggering ingenuity. The two standout scenes for...