Creation Theatre Company |
Box office
01865 766266 or at
www.creationtheatre.co.uk.
3rd Floor, Cherwell House, 1-5 London Place, Oxford, OX4 1BD.
Next
Antigone, 26th to 28th
September and 21st to 23rd November online
Creation Theatre present the world premiere of this digital adaptation of Sophocles’ timeless classic
Antigone. In the aftermath of a bloody civil war, Creon is trying to restore order. But his niece Antigone won’t accept his orders to leave her brother unburied. She’ll fight for what she believes is right. Whatever the cost.
We are delighted to be presenting this show online.
If you buy a ticket, you will be sent a log in link the day before the performance.
Where
The United Reform Church, 294A Banbury Road, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7ED.
For more details
see Creation's web site at www.creationtheatre.co.uk.
Review of Animal Farm
24th April to 11th May 2024
Review from the Newbury Weekly News.
A barnstorming production
When George Orwell's novel Animal Farm was published in 1945, the dictator Stalin, the model for the ruthless pig Napoleon, who rules the farm at the end of the story, was still leader, with the Soviet Union preparing for a Cold War with the West. Russia is still a threat to the UK but in Helen Eastman’s entertaining, high tech production of Animal Farm, adapted by Australian playwright Van Badham, the satire is entirely on Donald Trump, possibly the next president of the US, rather than Vladimir Putin.
A giant screen dominates the haybale and wooden box-filled stage (designer, David Spence) in the nave of Summertown’s United Reformed Church. Along with live action, the audience watches documentaries, film clips of the church filled with ‘sheep’ wearing Make Animal Farm Great Again baseball caps (yours for only a tenner), Newsnight-style interviews, a Winnie the Pooh type map animation, text messages and tweets.
The early days of the revolution led by the Trotskyite Snowball (Anna Tolputt) are filled with hope and gaiety. The drunken, ineffective posh farmer Jones (Nicholas Osmond, doubling) is exiled to the local pub and the farm is filled with animalist posters and green flags.
The narrative arc develops from this new democracy, lauded on television, to a nascent terror regime based on starvation diets, a culture of forgetting helped by the short lives of the animals, and terrorism in the shape of gun-toting dogs.
The Cockney thug Napoleon (Osmond, doubling), slowly metamorphosing from a balaclava-wearing pig with pink glove trotters into more recognisable human garb, stands at the church’s lectern. He preaches a warped gospel adapted from Animalism’s founder, the long-forgotten Old Major (Herb Cuanalo). Gaggles of chickens, hilariously clucking in a huddle, the loyal horses and donkey, are all kept in line by Napoleon’s jovial propaganda comms chief Squealer (Emily Woodward), responsible for adapting Old Major’s seven animalist commandments written on the wall.
News reports about the failures and disasters on Animal Farm are countered with dishonest allegations of fake news.
This contemporary updating of the novel gives a fresh perspective on the truths exposed by Orwell 80 years ago.
Another winner for Oxford’s leading theatre company
JON LEWIS
Previous productions
Animal Farm, 24th April to 11th May 2024
A Christmas Carol, 2nd December 2023 to 6th January 2024
The Alchemist, 11th to 21st October 2023
Much Ado About Nothing, 12th July to 19th August 2023. See the review in the archive.
The Tale of the Beauty and the Tail of the Beast, 4th December to 7th January 2023
Pinocchio, 15th December 2021 to 3rd January 2022
Romeo and Juliet, 12th to 23rd May 2021
Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People, 28th January to 14th February 2021
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 19th December 2020 to 3rd January 2021
Bleak House, 1st February to 7th March 2020
The Snow Queen, 30th November 2019 to 5th January 2020
Pictures of Dorian Gray, 9th to 27th July 2019 at Blackwell’s Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BQ
Peter Pan, 1st December 2018 to 5th January 2019 at the North Wall Arts Centre, Oxford. See the review in the archive.
The Pit and the Pendulum, 17th October to 2nd November 2018 at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. See the review in the archive.
Brave New World, 1st July to 11th August 2018
Swallows and Amazons, 9th July to 11th August 2018. See the review in the archive.
Dracula, 3rd March to 14th April 2018. See the review in the archive.
A Christmas Carol, 2nd December 2017 to 6th January 2018. See the review in the archive.
The Wind in the Willows, 2nd to 30th December 2017
Alice, 15th July to 19th August 2017. See the review in the archive.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 5th July to 5th August 2017
1984, 5th February to 5th March 2017
Snow White and Other Tales from the Brothers Grimm, 3rd December 2016 to 7th January 2017. See the review in the archive.
Hamlet, 13th July to 13th August 2016. See the review in the archive.
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 23rd June to 30th July 2016. See the review in the archive.
King Lear, 12th February to 24th March 2016. See the review in the archive.
Treasure Island, 4th December 2015 to 9th January 2016. There are reviews from the Oxford Times ("tremendous fun with a wicked edge, this scurvy morality tale will leave you reeling – and grinning long after the sea shanties have faded away" 5/5), Daily Info ("another memorable Christmas show... a well put together piece with lots of energy and enthusiasm").
Alice, 18th August to 13th September 2015. See the review in the archive.
As You Like It, 28th July to 12th September 2015. See the review in the archive.
The Wind in the Willows, 5th December 2014 to 10th January 2015. See the review in the archive.
Macbeth, 1st August to 13th September 2014. See the review in the archive.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 6th December 2013 to 4th January 2014. See the review in the archive.
Henry V, 17th August to 14th September 2013. See the review in the archive.
Jekyll & Hyde, 8th June to 6th July 2013. See the review in the archive.
Aladdin and the Magical Lamp, 6th December 2012 to 5th January 2013. See the review in the archive.
The Merchant of Venice, 7th July to 1st September 2012
Richard II, 7th May 2012
The Odyssey, 29th March to 28th April 2012
Hamlet, 5th to 24th March 2012
A Christmas Carol, 8th December 2011 to 7th January 2012. There are reviews in the
Oxford Times
("backing up all this ensemble acting is some very strong staging... fine show")
and Daily Info ("a flawless performance... one of the most enjoyable shows of this year; don’t miss out on a night full of merriment and Christmas cheer! ").
Antony and Cleopatra, 8th July to 3rd September 2011. See the review in the archive.
King James Bible, 14th May to 11th June 2011 at St Barnabas Church
Dr Faustus, 4th February to 2nd April 2011 at Blackwell's Bookshop
Rapunzel, 26th November 2010 to 15th January 2011. See the review in the archive.
Romeo and Juliet, 19th July to 31st August 2010, at Said Business School Amphitheatre, Oxford
Beauty and the Beast, 27th November 2009 to 16th January 2010. See the review in the archive.
Twelfth Night (July 2009)
A Midsummer Night's Dream, 4th July to 13th September 2008
Othello (April 2009)
Hans Christian Andersen's Magical Tales (December 2008)
Animal Farm, 21st July to 30th August 2008
The Taming of the Shrew, 16th July to 25th August 2007
Hamlet, 1st June to 28th July 2007
Macbeth, 2nd June to 9th September 2006 at Headington Hill Park
Saints and Sinners (June 2008)
Much Ado About Nothing (June 2008)
Measure for Measure (March 2008)
Tales from the Brothers Grimm (November 2007)
The Oxford Passion (August 2007)
Arabian Nights (November 2006)
Robin Hood (July 2006)
The Merchant of Venice (June 2006)
King Lear (February 2006)
The Snow Queen (November 2005)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (July 2005)
The Comedy of Errors (January 2005)
A Christmas Carol (November 2004)
Romeo and Juliet (July 2004)
Much Ado About Nothing (June 2004)
The Winter's Tale (February 2004)
The Tempest (July 2003)
Twelfth Night (June 2003)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (June 2002)
Romeo and Juliet, and As You Like It (July 2001)