I t’s the 1950s, and a plane crashes on an uninhabited island, leaving a group of schoolboys as the only survivors. Some of the boys are members of a choir. Gradually these well-educated children become less disciplined and descend into savagery.

Thus runs the storyline of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The book was initially unsuccessful, but has long since become a classic, spawning three films. Now Lord of the Flies has been adapted as a new musical with a strong Oxfordshire flavour. With a score by Shaun Davey, the adaptation and lyrics have been prepared by actress Joanne Pearce, who also co-directs the show with her husband, former RSC artistic director Adrian Noble. The couple live in east Oxfordshire. The cast is drawn from the Magdalen College School Theatre Academy.

“What’s great is that there’s a smell of authenticity about it,” says Adrian. “Joanne has recognised in her script that one of the schools that was involved in the plane crash was a choir school, and, of course, there’s a very famous choir at Magdalen. And that means that we have a high level of musical achievement in the cast, hopefully anyway.”

We are talking during the early days of rehearsals, just before Adrian flies out to work on this year’s San Diego Shakespeare Festival, where he is currently artistic director. How, I ask, did the couple first become involved with MCS?

“We live in a village just off the M40, and our children go to Magdalen,” Joanne replies. “It all started because the school asked us to find a director for a project they were involved with at Blenheim Palace. I couldn’t find anyone who could work within the time restrictions involved.

“So I phoned Adrian and said: ‘I don’t know what to do’. His reaction was: ‘You have to do it yourself’. [Adrian smiles wryly at this point.] We had a marvellous evening at Blenheim with Sheridan’s The Critic.

“I was about to do a production of Handel’s Alcina at the Staatsoper in Vienna at the time,” Adrian continues.

“I learnt a lot from Joanne’s production of The Critic, and incorporated several of her ideas into Alcina. So there was a nice international ‘conversation’ there!”

Playing the lead role of Ralph is 18-year-old MCS pupil Connor Diamond. How difficult, I ask him, is it to imagine being plane-crashed into the disastrous situation described in Lord of the Flies?

“The main difficulty is transforming myself into a 12 or 14-year-old. And crashing on to an island is unimaginable. I’ve had to get my inspiration from TV series and movies — Lost is an obvious example. You’re on a tropical island, but no one knows about it. It’s like an unhappy holiday.”

But would well-educated youngsters really descend into ill-disciplined savagery?

“Some sense of order would be restored, after the bloodshed in the book and now in the play,” Connor replies. “At first 12 or 14-year-olds would definitely feel there were no rules or restrictions. At that age they wouldn’t realise the necessity for them. “But once you become 17 or 18, you start to rationalise rules and laws.”

Meanwhile, Joanne has been keen to track the subject of friendship in her adaptation. “I wanted to show the dramatic tension of relationships and friendships breaking down, and why they break down. That, of course, has a parallel in adult relationships, so we’ve worked a lot on that too. “Also, I’ve kept to Golding’s original world of 1953. “If you have everybody in hoodies, you wonder why they haven’t used their mobiles to call for help. “The kids did masses of research on the period, even down to the type of sweets sold at the time: I’m certain every child on that island was desperate for a sherbet dip!”

 

Oxford Playhouse, Friday and Saturday. Box office: 01865 305305, oxfordplayhouse.com