Animal Farm: From Page to Stage (02/03/2013)
| Venue | ： | Tsimshatsui Book Centre, Exhibition Hall, The Commercial Press Shops B1007-1010, B1/F., Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsimshatsui, Kln. |
| Speaker | ： | Mr. William Yip Mr. Ben Robinson Mr. Frankie Ho Ms. Harriet Chung |
| Host | ： | Ms. Christa Tam |
Review
Hey! Where were you? The turnout was so disappointing, as most of you who registered for this event didn’t show up and you should know you really missed out on a fascinating event!
Fortunately our lack of numbers did not dampen the zeal of our speakers – Ms Harriet Chung (Playwright), Mr. Ben Robinson (Lyricist) and Mr. Frankie Ho (Composer and Musical Director)..
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a classic tale about the animals on Manor Farm who dispensed with their human master and created their own utopia of animalism. But ultimately, they discovered that there was little difference between their own ruthless elite and that of their human counterpart.
Ms Harriet Chung, the script writer, is a big fan of George Orwell So the project of turning the novel into a musical was like a dream come true, especially with it being a timeless classic which continues to have a universal appeal. Just like the lyricist and musical director, she believes in the power of putting text into dialogue to music which brings out the deeper emotions of the characters. The audience heard the whole creative process from “bare-boning” the story, giving it structure, writing the lyrics, then introducing the music, giving it rhythm and rhymes to reflect the emotional state of the characters.
The audience expected it to be a daunting task to create a musical but to their surprise, it wasn’t so hard for these three professionals who are passionate about their job; in fact, it took Mr. Ben Robinson only two days to write the musical numbers, he even had to cut down from 45 pieces to 29! However, Mr. Frankie Ho admitted that it was the arrangement of the music he wrote which was truly time-consuming not the actual composing.
After having some insight into the creative process , Blooming Club actually went to the matinee of the Revival Edition of this award-winning play the following week at Yuen Long Theatre, where the cast performed to a full house of mostly secondary school students. The music and the lyrics were superb. An excellent cast truly brought the story to life. Theatre Noir deserves credit for bringing this masterpiece to the stage, remaining true to the original and yet so entertaining that it can be enjoyed at different levels without any prior knowledge of the political allegory behind the story. We couldn’t help noticing all the different styles of music, the classical, the rock, the tango and the electronic all mentioned by Mr. Frankie Ho at the talk the week before and we thoroughly enjoyed the spirited performance. We left the theatre as an audience both entertained and inspired, quietly reflecting on the messages in the story about problems in society and human weaknesses.
Thank you, Theatre Noir, for bringing us such a wonderful production. We look forward to your next one later this year.
