LORD OF THE FLIES

Photo: Manuel Harlan

Golding’s novel sits so firmly in my childhood memory, a curriculum classic that at the time both thrilled and terrified me. But I am not sure it was taught that well, yes we all shuddered at the horrors of that bloody breakdown of an enforced society of young boys, the grim thread of bullying that at time was all to personally poignant. And there was a film which barely touched the sides of this visceral tale. Seeing that Chichester Festival Theatre was staging a new production at the end of the 2025 season was both exciting and at the same time worrying. Could it ever be pulled off with the same power as reading the original text?

Photo: Manuel Harlan

With a history of filling that stage with water for so many productions over the years it came as something of a surprise to see such a stark and empty setting, no water, no jungle, no beach, just a vast expanse of blackness, a scattering of large flight cases and a microphone on a stand. We were clearly in for a very raw interpretation of the story. And that rawness started with the entrance of a small boy, chubby, black, waving to the audience, cute and innocent. Then, taking a note from the front of house manager, he makes an announcement, he declares a list of those things that we will encounter, in the way that so much period TV is headed up these days, racism, attitudes and language from a distant era, blood, gore, violence, bullying. It raises a laugh because so many of us are aware of how things have changed, what we once took on the chin and perhaps accepted as the norm, as okay, are no longer acceptable. The laughter though we soon realise is utterly misplaced, and that laughter rears its head again as the story unfolds. Piggy our cute, fat, black boy is at the centre of the whole, he is the voice of reason and charged with the task of revealing that the microphone is in fact the conch. It’s a clumsy device that almost works, if you have read the book, but it is tricksy and perhaps an unnecessary conceit. An actual conch would have worked easily as well, maybe better, and perhaps established that the boys were on a tropical island an not in an abandoned theatre of warehouse. And to be frank there was little reference to the reality of their location and how indeed they had arrived there. There was little sense of either time or place and the only indication was perhaps given by the soon to be shed school uniforms.

Photo: Manuel Harlan

So all in all this was a production devised with a sense of meta-theatre gone a step too far. And maybe I am giving the impression that I disliked the whole. I did not, and I did not for several reasons. I say several reasons because the whole was redeemed by an extraordinarily talented cast of young actors who through their skill brought the whole to life. There was not a weak performance on that stage, cowardice, compliance, bullying, fear and terror all so well displayed. Twitching boys rallied into frenzied action, chanting dancing and darkly unsettling. A brilliant young cast that defied the somewhat clunky staging and direction and actually brought the whole to life. The appearance of the parachutist standing on the raised element of the stage simply does not work, why stand and not dangle ominously from above, and the emergence of the ship’s captain from the audience, and shouting move to the people sat next to him, raised an inappropriate laugh that simply spoiled that moment of tense realisation that is so important to the whole.

Photo: Manuel Harlan

There are moments of visual excitement as the story reaches violent peaks and the soundscape and lighting add greatly to the atmosphere, but overall this production succeeds on the merits of that cast.

Sheyi Cole. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Special mention must go to Sheyi Cole whose balanced portrayal of Ralph holds so much of this production together, a very fine performance. In contrast Tucker St Ivany is every inch the entitled bully, scarily real as he descends into his power crazed role.

Alfie Jallow. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Finally Alfie Jallow who plays Piggy with such amazing skill, he is at once both naive and innocent and yet knowing and reasoned. He is the voice that needs to be heard and is ignored, the moral thread of the whole piece and the tragedy too. This is an incredible performance and by far the most convincing depiction of a vulnerable young boy in the whole production.

What emerges from the work is that a great cast can overcome all and that this story of radicalisation is perhaps more relevant today than it was when written.

Andrew Kay

25 September

Chichester Festival Theatre

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