Animal Farm at Native Earth's Aki Studio

A group of Toronto Film School acting students is set to step into the hooves, paws, trotters and claws of the creatures inhabiting Animal Farm when the school’s adaptation of George Orwell’s bitingly satiric novella hits the stage at Native Earth’s Aki Studio next week.

Adapted by Canadian playwright Peter Anderson and revised and directed by TFS’s Andy Massingham and Christopher Sawchyn, the 90-minute play opens in a utopian world based on equality, but quickly devolves into a dystopian nightmare where power takes precedence over all else.

Described by Massingham and Sawchyn as both “deeply theatrical” and “very delicate,” the piece is one in which the student actors will employ movement, mask and choreography techniques to “evoke a world of animals who, while speaking in both English and their native animal speak, are as susceptible to innuendo, corruption, and brainwashing as us who are watching.”

“We have worked to find the animal/human balance which blurs the line between fantasy and reality,” Massingham and Sawchyn said in a statement, noting their awe at the commitment and energy their student actors have brought to the project.

“We are all keenly aware that Orwell’s vision has not aged one second since it was published in 1945 and our hope is that (audiences) will take this play with them afterward and think about the Animal Farm we all find ourselves in.”

Animal Farm will take to the stage at Native Earth Performing Arts Inc.’s Aki Studio for a three-performance run from September 16 to 18 as follows:

• Tuesday, September 16 at 7:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, September 17 at 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, September 18 at 8 p.m.

Native Earth’s Aki Studio is located at 585 Dundas St. E. Tickets are free and available at the door.