Puppet musical at Mass MoCA

NORTH ADAMS — For young children, it's the "Lion King" with barnyard animals and a simple moral lesson: Power corrupts. For adults, it's all the eerie nuances and poignant metaphors that George Orwell, who also wrote 1984, is known for.

"Animal Farm: The Musical" will come to Mass MoCA this Friday at 8 p.m.

Timeout New York called it "witty and eloquent," while The Village Voice commented "Fertile theatricality. The stage bustles with invention!"

Synapse Productions is the theater group behind the production based on and inspired by the insightful novel by George Orwell. It was adapted for the stage by famed British director Peter Hall and features music by Richard Peaslee (noted for the RSC production of Marat/Sade) and lyrics by Adrian Mitchell (former artistic director of the National Theatre). Puppetry by Emily DeCola and Eric Wright is the real centerpiece of the production. A variety of different types of puppets was used including hand puppets, rod and stick style, bunraku, and masks. Cows move together on a yoke, a flock of sheep is on a cart and managed by one actor, the narrator is a tiny wheeled rat, and the most expressive of all, the pigs, are actually actors outfitted with rod and stick puppet bodies and mask.

Peter Hall created and ran Royal Shakespeare Company from 1960 through 1968. He served as director of the Royal National Theatre from 1973 to 1988. From

1989 until 1990 he was the artistic director of Glyndebourne Opera. Appointed a CBE in 1963 and knighted in 1977, he's won two Tony awards, the 1999 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Arts, the 1987 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director, the 1981 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Director, and the 1990 London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Director. Most recently he has created his own theater company, Peter Hall Company.

Tickets for Animal Farm are $19 for orchestra seats, $16 for mezzanine, or $12 for kids or students with ID. As always, MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount on tickets to the performance. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M. (closed Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located on Marshall Street in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.