The hit book and movie series the Hunger Games has its first story retold as a spectacular stage show. Performed in the round in an environment which really brings the action up close, the show is a good retelling of the tale of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta’s fight through the annual Hunger Games for the betterment of the people of district twelve.
The show is filled with creativity in how it’s staged. There is a large centre section of the stage which opens up and various pieces of set emerge from within it. Then there are times when locations are depicted purely with light that maps out areas on the stage and is very effective. Then there are times when action takes place on obstacle course style rope ladders, or on platforms that start to burn as Katniss scrambles away from the flames. And this is just scratching the surface of the creativity in the show.
Performed in the round with audiences on all sides, there isn’t a bad seat in the house. When watching it I was up in the themed district 11 section, which is essentially the cheap/worst seats in the house with it said to be restricted view. In reality the view was fine and you could see all the action clearly including the faces of the characters.
At one point there were actors in climbing harnesses having intense melee battles just under where we were sat and above the heads of rows of the audience.
Surprisingly, President Snow is portrayed in the show only on huge projections on video screens and is played by Hollywood actor John Malkovich. He did a fine job, but as I didn’t know his involvement in the show before I attended, I was slightly disappointed that both he and the character never made a physical appearance on stage.
The cast all did a fine job, although I did find it hard to like a lot of the characters. I’m not so much blaming the cast for this though as perhaps I’m admittedly not as big a fan of the franchise as I know some people are. I’ve never been completely sold on the plot which to me was always a knock off of the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie version of The Running Man where people are pitted in a deadly battle royale based TV show. To me, the whole idea of the build up to the Hunger Games where they parade the tributes about on TV to get to know them felt a little redundant. They style of the show makes it feel like fashion TV, and seemingly the only benefit for the tributes to take part is that they may get sponsors so they get some supplies air dropped in.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the choice to have Katniss perform her inner monologue at times don’t really endear her to me, and broke up the flow of the action. Perhaps this was a callback to the book origins of the story, but felt we could have done without it.the action in the show was exciting for the most part, although at times it did lean into dance style choreography which was fun artistically, although wasn’t as effective as when they just went for pure combat and chases.
The use of projection and lighting in the show was very effective. Lots of little monitors enhanced the atmosphere with signage about what district areas of the seats and staging represented. During the hornet sequence the monitors showed projections of buzzing hornets or flames. Whenever a tribute was killed they also played a booming canon sound and lit the seating area which related to the district number of the character that died a deep red.
Conclusion
If you are a fan of the books or film series this does a great job to bring it to life in a creative and spectacular way. Even if you’re new or uninitiated to the world of Hunger Games, this would work as a good intro and is a fine story in its own right.
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