Gold Coast review - Lord of the Flies: a great fable for our times

By Douglas Kennedy

Lord of the Flies

By William Golding

 Adapted for the stage by Nigel Williams

 Gold Coast Little Theatre.

Directed by Joshua McCann-Thomson

Photos TLL Photography

 For booking www.gclt.com.au Tel: 07 5532 2096. Season ends September 21.

The Gold Coast Little Theatre has brought William Goldings’ classic tale of how youngsters cast away on a tropical desert island, who have no adult supervision, cope with fending for themselves.

This new adaptation of the 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies, brings to the stage a timely reminder of how quickly the thin veneer of civilisation can fall away in an ungoverned lawless environment.

The original novel, a widely read account of a group of schoolboys, cast away on an island when their aircraft crashes during World War II, has been a staple of reading in UK senior schools for decades.

The story was first adapted for the stage in the 1980s and then again by Nigel Williams for the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1995.

Now the Gold Coast Little Theatre has brought it to its Southport theatre with the added twist of an all-girl cast.

Director Joshau McCann-Thomson has the challenging task of unveiling the primitive inner-workings of 13 girls as their prim and proper school personas are stripped away.

McCann-Thomson has worked on musicals for the past 13 years, but this is his first outing with a straight play.

The overall effect is striking as the girls break up into factions with Ralph (Amelia White) and Piggy (Mia Waldron) trying to bring order and discipline to the group, and Jack (Bree Paige) and Roger (Angelique Giuffre), leading the feral tribe.

Although all the survivors are schoolgirls, the cast still retains the story’s original masculine identity, including the now iconic boys’ names such as Ralph, Jack, Roger and, of course, the memorable misfit Piggy.

Only the short-sighted and clumsy Piggy, whose real name is never revealed, remains gender neutral.

When the story opens Ralph appears to be the natural leader until the popularist adventurer Jack, who resents not being leader, starts a revolt which quickly wins over the youngsters.

While Ralph, with support from Piggy, offers order and stability with routines such as keeping a fire going to attract attention, and dividing the group into work parties, Jack offers something more primal.

Among the iconic images associated with Lord of the Flies are the symbolic seashell known as the conch, which symbolises order and authority, the mythical beast, which represents a continuing threat, and Piggy’s glasses used to light the life-giving fire.

While Jack’s tribe focuses on hunting, bloody rituals and unbridled expressions of emotional freedom, the dwindling Ralph camp struggles to maintain order and governance.

Lord of the Flies is a great fable for our times as we cast our eyes across the contemporary news headlines and see so many Jacks and Rogers popping up in leadership roles around the world.

The all-girl cast does a splendid job, under the direction of director McCann-Thomson, with Jack’s tribe producing some of the most compelling performances.

The single island set, lighting and costumes all add to the flavour of the show, which becomes more demonic as act two rolls out.

This story of the struggle between civility and chaos was originally rejected by publishers and labelled as, ‘absurd, rubbish and dull’, by many, but today is standard fare in many British schools.

The original print was just 3,000 copies, and was slow to sell, but by 2015 had sold 10 million and rates as a 20th century classic.

Lord of the Flies is a recognised literal translation of Beelzebub, a biblical demon considered the god of pride and warfare.

This GCLT production is worth catching as the all-girl cast demonstrates that the notorious gender-gap is less prevalent in the creative arts than mainstream working life.