FOUR STARS

 

As the heatwave set in this weekend I piled into the stuffy theatre to watch Lord of the Flies at the Oxford Playhouse.

Inside, the warm temperature worked curiously in the production’s favour as the audience was gradually sucked into the infamous nightmare on a tropical paradise.

“We’ve got to have rules and obey them,” one of the boys ominously declares.

“After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything.”

William Golding’s famous novel The Lord of the Flies is the story about a group of schoolboys who become stranded on an island and end up governing themselves into gradual savagery.

Co-directors Joanne Pearce and Adrian Noble manage to reinvent the classic using song and dance in a way that is fresh but not intrusive.

I was initially sceptical myself, but the benefit becomes immediately obvious in scenes such as when one of the children encounters the titular character, realising the true nature of ‘the beast’ as it delights in mocking him.

Music and song simply added to the sinister feeling of dread as the famously foregone conclusion drew ever closer. I felt powerless to act as I watched the schoolboys descend into the throngs of barbarism, glued to my seat with horror.

The producers at Magdalen College School Theatre Academy have crafted a tense and vibrant atmosphere, full of movement and music, that takes its characters from the innocence of singing about sweets to the chants of war.

In a story that contains so much glaring symbolism, it is easy to forget the central narrative of children forced into the adult world of survival, but a strong cast coupled with sharp production meant this version of Golding’s magnum opus was in safe hands.