Theatre
Review
Review: The Hunger Games On Stage
The blockbuster adaptation at the new Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre is a technical astonishment
What kind of monsters would want to watch children fight to the death? Well, perhaps many of us, if the marketing was shiny enough – a point made by Suzanne Collins in her original book series and hammered home by the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre. Audience members arriving for The Hunger Games: On Stage will take their seats in a custom-built, futuristic arena, for an evening of entertainment that will throw at them every special effect possible. Arrows will be fired, sets will be scaled, costumes will be burned, and seats will even move, changing the dimensions of the stage scene by scene. The young performers onstage will cycle through a disorientating array of stunts, in a show that tests the athleticism of its cast like no other. There’s hardly a second in which The Hunger Games: On Stage isn’t doing everything in its power to keep its audience entertained. Until the other shoe drops, and we’re reminded that what’s keeping us glued to our seats is a story of brutal child murder, packaged as entertainment.
“I wake on the morning of the reaping,” intones Mia Carragher, our Katniss Everdeen, as the lights come up. Many audience members will remember the beloved film series with Jennifer Lawrence, but Katniss’ inner monologue, which we hear throughout the play, brings the adaptation more closely in line with the books. Allowed this window into her world, we’re granted a closer tie to our main character – one that often serves to remind us just how young she is.
It’s a point driven home by the show’s casting across the board. Sophia Ally as Prim and Aiya Agustin as Rue, both twelve years old in the story, are cast age-accurate, small and vulnerable amongst the noise and fury onstage. The rest of the tributes are presented to us by director Matthew Dunstan very much as teenagers, with teenage physicality and teenage braggadocio. The show’s first half lets us spend ample time with them in training, press and preparation for the arena – so it’s an even more sobering thing when in the second half we watch the games unfold.
Miriam Buether’s set is a marvel; a versatile space that never runs out of surprises for its audience. Together with Chris Fisher’s illusions, and lighting and sound from Lucy Carter and Ian Dickinson, the world created is another level of immersive. At times, this level of immersion is magical – at other times, horrifying. For fans of the source material there aren’t many surprises story-wise – this is a faithful adaptation and plays almost beat for beat – but as a theatregoing experience The Hunger Games: On Stage can’t help but astonish.
It’s a relatively bloodless affair compared with the books or the film, but Dunstan finds plenty of ways to force us to engage with the massacre happening before our eyes. More than the characters or the relationships in Collins’ original story, it’s this loss of life that the adaptation wants to spotlight, with death shown to us both in the lethal fight sequences and in more abstract ways – the spectre of Katniss’ father watching over her from the giant screens, Rue’s small form joining the ranks of the deceased, who are very much not at peace. You will be entertained, The Hunger Games: On Stage promises – but at what cost?
The Hunger Games: On Stage is now playing at the Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre – find tickets here
