Animal Farm - Adaptations

Adaptations

A BBC radio version, produced by Rayner Heppenstall, was broadcast in January 1947. Orwell listened to the production at his home in Canonbury Square in London, with Hugh Gordon Porteous, amongst others. Orwell later wrote to Heppenstall that Porteous, 'who had not read the book, grasped what was happening after a few minutes.'

Animal Farm has been adapted to film twice, with a third version to potentially follow in 2012. The 1954 Animal Farm film was an animated feature and the 1999 Animal Farm film was a TV live action version. Both differ from the novel, and have been accused of taking significant liberties, sanitising some aspects. In the 1954 version, Napoleon is apparently overthrown in a second revolution. The 1999 film shows Napoleon's regime collapsing in on itself, with the farm with new human owners, as happened in the Soviet Union, appropriating the new political reality to the story. In 2012, a HFR-3D version of Animal Farm potentially directed by Andy Serkis was announced

A theatrical version, with music and lyrics, was staged at the National Theatre London on 25 April 1984, directed by Peter Hall. It toured nine cities in 1985.