Daily 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Fri 31 May — Sat 01 Jun
Main House
Guy Masterson
Animal Farm
- 31 May & 1 June
Event Information
Daily 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Fri 31 May — Sat 01 Jun
★★★★★ The Times
★★★★★ The Herald
★★★★★ The Scotsman
★★★★★ British Theatre Guide
★★★★★ Adelaide Theatre Guide
★★★★★ Adelaide Arts Hun
★★★★★ FringeReview
★★★★★ Adelaide Independent
★★★★★ RipItUp Adelaide
★★★★★ The Fix Adelaide
OUTSTANDING SHOW! FringeReview
Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson (director of the Olivier-nominated West End and Broadway hit The Shark Is Broken returns with “One of the greatest solo shows of all time” (The Times) having delighted Bath audiences with his globally acclaimed sell-out A Christmas Carol last December, bringing yet another mind-boggling solo performance that will live in the memory for many years.
Faithfully adapted and astonishingly performed, Orwell's barnyard classic is brought to vivid life with only a bale of hay, a bowler hat, a horsewhip, some amazing homemade animal sound effects and an extraordinarily bravura physical performance!
★★★★★ "A powerful tour-de-force performance from an exceedingly accomplished actor... utterly enthralling" British Theatre Guide
★★★★★ "Delights with its physical grace and artistry. A combination of bravura acting and poetic storytelling" The Scotsman
"For those studying Animal Farm today, this production is a must-see... accessible and engaging way to both learn the age-old story of animalism and to analyse its themes and message. One of the most well-rounded and well executed one-man shows you’re ever likely to watch." All That Dazzles
Friday 31 May & Saturday 1 June
Daily 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Adults £32.50 / Children £14.50
A booking fee of £2.50 per ticket applies
GUY MASTERSON - Adaptor & Performer
After obtaining a Joint Honours degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry from Cardiff University in 1982, Guy studied drama at UCLA's School of Drama and started as an actor in 1985 in Hollywood. He returned to the UK in 1989 to study further at LAMDA. He is an multi-award winning actor, playwright, director, producer, international presente, dramaturge and renowned acting and executive coach.
Following a conventional start in plays, film and television, Guy began solo performing in 1991 with The Boy’s Own Story (Peter Flannery) and thence Under Milk Wood (Dylan Thomas) in 1994 and Animal Farm (George Orwell) in 1995. He first produced/directed in 1993 with Playing Burton participated at the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time in 1994. The following 28 seasons saw his association with many of Edinburgh's most celebrated hits, and his company became EdFringe's most awarded independent theatre producer - garnering 8 Scotsman Fringe Firsts, 3 Herald Angels, 25 Stage Award nominations (including 4 wins) together with numerous lesser awards. Guy also directed two of Edinburgh's biggest grossing dramatic hits: 12 Angry Men (Reginald Rose) - famously starring a cast of well-known comedians (including Bill Bailey, Dave Johns and Phil Nichol, which then toured Australia and New Zealand - and The Odd Couple (2005) again starring Bill Bailey with Alan Davies. He also originated One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Dale Wasserman) (2004) starring Christian Slater and Mackenzie Crook which transferred to teh Gielgud Theatre in London's West End and later The Garrick Theatre.
His 2009 production, Morecambe, (Tim Whitnall) transferred to The Duchess Theatre in the West End and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment (plus another nomination for the actor playing Eric).
At Edinburgh 2014 his epic 30 actor adaptation of Animal Farm produced by Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre of Tbilisi, (Georgia), won the Stage Award for Best Ensemble. His production of The Marilyn Conspiracy (which he co-wrote with Vicki McKellar) was due to transfer to London in June 2020 but was postponed by Covid19. Most notably, his 2019 hit, The Shark Is Broken (Ian Shaw) opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End in October 2022 for 18 weeks and was Olivier Award nominated for Best New Comedy. It since played 7 weeks at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto and 18 weeks at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway from August 2023.
Most recently, he directed Picasso: Le Monstre Sacré (Terri D’Alfonso) at the Playground Theatre in London, and co-directed the award winning The Marvellous Elephant Man - The Musical at the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Festival, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Fringe Festival.
As a performer he won The Stage Best Actor Award in 2001 for Fern Hill & Other Dylan Thomas and was aslo nominated in 1998 for A Soldier's Song, 2003 for Best Solo Performance for Under Milk Wood, and again for Shylock (Gareth Armstrong) in 2011. In 2003, he also received Edinburgh's most prestigious accolade, The Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award. His most recent solo work, A Christmas Carol, has sold nearly every ticket over 7 festive seasons since it opened in 2017. It has also playedOff Broadway (Soho Playhouse), Yale University, Kansas City and Bethlehem PA.
His theatrical commitments have largely kept him out of mainstream film and television, however, he made the obligatory appearance on Casualty (Christmas Special 2004) and has been the Franziskaner Monch - the face of the premium German Weissbier - since 2007! He also writes plays, screenplays and poetry, is an executive performanc and confidence coach. His passion is to bring great new ideas to life and fresh talent to the stage.
He is married to Brigitta and father to Indigo and Tallulah…
TONY BONCZA - Director
Trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Theatre credits include: Coriolanus, RSC; Great Britain - Royal National Theatre; The Mousetrap (60th Anniversary international Tour). BBC Director General - Yes, Prime Minister, (Trafalgar Studios West End & National Tour); Four Nights in Knaresborough (Southwark Playhouse); The Critic (Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre); 1800 Acres (Riverside Studios); Shakespeare in the Garden (Japan); Victor in The Price (Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich); Tom in The Norman Conquests (Birmingham Rep); Charlie in Death of a Salesman (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Musik (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Indian Ink, A Woman of No Importance, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jamaica Inn, Barbarians, Donkeys' Years, Macbeth, A Winter's Tale, Lady Windermere's Fan, Just Between Ourselves, Racing Demon, The Cherry Orchard, The Merchant of Venice, The Rover, The Banished Cavaliers, The Norman Conquests and The Crucible (Salisbury Playhouse); The House of Correction (Guy Masterson Productions/The Pleasance)
Theatre credits include: Coriolanus, RSC; Great Britain - Royal National Theatre; The Mousetrap (60th Anniversary international Tour). BBC Director General - Yes, Prime Minister, (Trafalgar Studios West End & National Tour); Four Nights in Knaresborough (Southwark Playhouse); The Critic (Minerva, Chichester Festival Theatre); 1800 Acres (Riverside Studios); Shakespeare in the Garden (Japan); Victor in The Price (Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich); Tom in The Norman Conquests (Birmingham Rep); Charlie in Death of a Salesman (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Musik (Plymouth Theatre Royal); Indian Ink, A Woman of No Importance, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jamaica Inn, Barbarians, Donkeys' Years, Macbeth, A Winter's Tale, Lady Windermere's Fan, Just Between Ourselves, Racing Demon, The Cherry Orchard, The Merchant of Venice, The Rover, The Banished Cavaliers, The Norman Conquests and The Crucible (Salisbury Playhouse); The House of Correction (Guy Masterson Productions/The Pleasance)
Revue and cabaret includes: Boncza and Lumley: Back by Public Demand, Crackers Deluxe, More Crackers and Christmas Crackers (Salberg Studio, Salisbury Playhouse); Bars on Broadway (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton); The Pindar of Wakefield (Grays Inn Road, London).
Television includes: The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctors, Londoners (Polish TV), Hotel Babylon, EastEnders, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Vet, Ties of Blood, Squadron, Coronation Street, Jackanory Playhouse, Strangers, Morecambe and Wise's Night Train to Murder, Eric Sykes's If You Go Into the Woods Today, For Maddie With Love, Dick Turpin.
Films include: Chariots of Fire, Empire of the Sun.
Directing credits include: Animal Farm, A Soldier's Song and Under Milk Wood (National and International tours for Guy Masterson/TTI and British Council); Bella Bella Donatella (Salisbury Umbrella/ Salisbury Playhouse); and has also directed a number of corporate and short films. He also co-wrote Barton Stacey and the Theft of the Elgin Marbles for BBC radio with the late Roger Leach.
GEORGE ORWELL - Author
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903 in India and educated at Eton College unitl 1917. In 1921 he served in the Imperial Police of Burma which inspired his first novel Burmese Days eventually published in 1935. From 1930, he worked as a schoolteacher, private tutor and bookshop assistant while writing articles and reviews for several publications. His second book (but first to be published) Down And Out In Paris And London was written under his new pseudonym George Orwell in 1933.
Commissioned in 1936 to visit areas of mass unemployment in Lancashire and Yorkshire to write The Road To Wigan Pier - a passionate study of the plight of the jobless, published in 1937, followed by Keep The Aspidistra Flying. In late 1936, Orwell join the Republican POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War where he was seriously wounded by a bullet to the throat.
Orwell returned again to England in 1938, escaping from Spain through the Pyrenees. His next book, Homage To Catalonia, recorded his experiences. In 1939, in Morocco, he wrote Coming Up For Air, a defence of the individual against big business. During the remainder of World War II he served in the Home Guard and broadcast for the BBC Eastern Service and from 1943 onwards he also worked freelance for The Observer and Manchester Evening News. Finally, he took a post as Literary Editor of The Tribune where he regularly contributed political commentary.
The death of his first wife in 1945 coincided with the publishing of Animal Farm which brought him immediate international recognition. His final and equally notorious parable illustrating his dislike of totalitarianism, Nineteen Eighty Four, was published in early 1949. At this time he was taken seriously ill with tuberculosis and, in January 1950, shortly after marrying Sonja Bronwell, he died.
Animal Farm & Nineteen Eighty Four have since been translated into over one-hundred languages. Animal Farm remains the highest selling paperback of all time.
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