Many are familiar with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. A plane crashes. A deserted island is suddenly inhabited by a group of reckless, preadolescent British schoolboys. The young boys are tasked with maintaining a semblance of order making shelter, gathering food, yet this order quickly deteriorates into murderous disorder and an overriding battle for power.
US-A-UM and Malthouse Theatre’s staging of this classic tale adds a slight twist. The deserted island has been replaced with a reclaimed bedroom setting. The belligerent and bombastic school boys? They have been supplanted with a collective of gentile, pretty girls dressed in pleated skirts.
How can this be? And yet, it can, and quite convincingly.
The tamed stage setting gradually spirals into disarray. Furniture lays strewn, bedclothes uneven. The girls’ hair is matted, their clothes unkempt or littered across the stage. A girl is moved to question, “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”
US-A-UM’s staging of an all-female Lord of the Flies is certainly not conventional. Yet, by introducing a female cast to a traditionally male tale, the story is inverted to examine new perspectives and issues such as gender politics. The dark truths about human nature are certainly not confined to male characters. In today’s age, girls can be just as savage to one another as their male counterparts.
This fresh and daring take on a classic production forms part of the Malthouse Theatre’s Helium Season. Helium is an opportunity for independent artists to present their work in parallel with the Malthouse Theatre’s mainstage season.
Lord of the Flies is being performed at the Malthouse Theatre until Sunday July 14 as part of Malthouse Theatre’s Helium season, which runs until Saturday October 5.
Tickets: $25 | Bookings: www.malthousetheatre.com.au / 03 9685 5111
