In many ways, Lord of the Flies is safe programming, certain to attract school groups. William Golding’s novel is a staple of the curriculum – a rite of passage for generations of teens. It could easily feel tired and overdone. Yet Leeds Playhouse makes a compelling case for this as a story that still has new things to say.
There’s a distinctly modern flavour to Amy Leach’s production. Without littering the stage with 21st-century signifiers, she manages to bring the piece right up to date. It has the pacy, dynamic quality that Leach excels at, right from the first beats of the opening movement sequence. We see the kids ripped from home, clutching bags of belongings, before they are thrust headlong into disaster. Their plane crash lands in what seems like a paradise, but Max Johns’ monochrome landscape of black trees and white stone is immediately foreboding.
