Director Marcus Romer has brought a compelling and fast paced adaption of Lord of the Flies to the Pilot theatre. Originally staged at the Pilot ten years ago, this production shows the enduring relevance of Golding's fable.
       Eschewing attempts to recreate a desert island, the stage works by re-creating the wreckage, “the scar that ripped through paradise” of the boys' aeroplane. A wing and an engine are deftly adapted to multiple uses, standing in as both the hill where the boys overlook the island and the shelters they build on the beach. Certain scenes - such as the hunting missions, fights and tribal dances - make full use of these props, which become climbing frames, arenas and pulpits around which the beautifully choreographed action swings. The starkness of the props suggests the flimsiness of the civilisation left behind, and they gain an increasingly abstract power as a brutal gang mentality dominates the boys.
       Clever staging aside, the success of the production really depends on the strength of the cast and this performance is admirably served by several very strong leads. Dominic Doughty plays Piggy effectively conveying the character's mixture of vulnerability and humanity. Piggy's outsider status is constantly emphasised, in terms of both his position on the stage and through Doughty's ability to portray a mixture of self-consciousness, awkwardness and indignation. His appeal to decency and righteousness over superstition and violence before he is chased to his death by the other boys completes his transition from a figure of ridicule (for the audience as well as the other boys) to a symbol of lost humanity.
       Davood Ghadami plays Ralph, the decent if weak willed leader of the boys. Ghadami's physical maturity and good looks evoke Ralph's natural authority, whilst the terrible consequences of his inability to resist Jack's regime of violence and fear is portrayed with skill and sensitivity. Mark Knightley is a compelling Jack, the choir prefect who leads a faction of the boys to violence and barbarism. Knightly plays the character with considerably complexity; he portrays Jack with an ambivalent mixture of social insecurity and aggressive physical confidence, thus raising disturbing questions about the potential for evil within us all.
       Two supporting roles also stand out and foreground the political implications of Golding's tale. Tony Hasnath is excellent as Simon, the tormented, introspective boy who is killed by the others in a frenzy of fear, his murder signifying the sacrifice of a more pacific spirit in the face of fear and privation. Jack's number two, Roger, is played by Lachlan McCall. Opening the play as a dirty, lounging outsider affecting indifference to his origins and showing an enthusiasm to serve raw power, his eager obedience is chillingly recapitulated at the end of the play when soldiers arrive to restore a more definite order. It is Roger - not Jack - who responds at once to their commands, standing to attention, eager to subject himself once more to the new regime.
       Romer's direction and staging effectively simplifies and clarifies Golding's themes, foregrounding the political and allegorical nature of the narrative so that each boy occupies a political position. Whilst this might be a little reductive, it ensures the production stands as a strong warning against fascism and the ways in which irrational fears - particularly the need for an external threat (in this case, the nonexistent ‘beast') - can be used to control a people and justify any atrocity. Overall, this is a very successful production that remains true to the spirit of Golding's novel. Judging by the enthusiastic response of the school children in the audience, his uncompromising message of how power without restrain leads to unforeseen evil continues to resonate.
James Miller