Department of English                               Gymnasium Steglitz Berlin

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Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
performed by TNT Theatre Britain and the American Drama Group Europe
at Akademie der Künste, Jan 26th, 2010

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"Jonathan Swift's GULLIVER'S TRAVELS is described by George Orwell as one of the ten best books ever written. The book examines the human condition with such clarity and indeed morality, that it is hard to think of a more profound use of satire." (source: leaflet advertising the play) The book was brought to the stage by TNT theatre and the American Drama Group Europe in an updated dramatization directed by Paul Stebbings. We thank the ADG Europe for allowing us to publish the stage photos on our webside.

How did the students enjoy the performance? Here are some reactions.

  Table of Contents

The work has not remotely lost its meaning for our society

The spotlights go on. A fair-haired man enters the stage. He is being whipped by another man so badly that his back is full of red long weals. The audience will get to know the reason for his mad, mentally disturbed condition after some time: It’s the world itself that made him, Lemuel Gulliver, the man he presently is – one who can’t feel anything else but hate for human beings and longs to be a “noble” horse.

The Academy of Arts Berlin has taken up the challenge of bringing a highly well-known work to the stage under the direction of Paul Stebbings once more: “Gulliver’s Travels”, written by the famous Irish writer Jonathan Swift and first published in 1726. Only four actors of the TNT Theatre Britain, a popular international touring theatre company, lead the audience through four different worlds: To Lilliput, Brodbignag, the flying island of Laputa and to the land of Houyhnhnms (horses) und Yahoos.

Without doubt you could think this is a harmless children’s story only created for entertainment. Far from it: In truth these journeys form a filigree frame of an extremely satiric work critical of society. Indeed there are two versions of Swift’s work. The shortened, two-part children’s book version and the original version composed of four parts. The TNT Theatre Britain makes an effort living up to expectations of both versions.

Gulliver, captain of a trading ship, is thrown into the sea by his crew because they want to become respectable pirates. He lands on the island of Lilliput and becomes a captive of the Lilliputians. They begin to accept him, but finally he fails to stay there because of their mutual distrust. After that he swims to Brobdingnag, where he turns from a giant to a midget. He is used to make money, the giants at Brobdingnag do not care about Gulliver’s dignity.  Gulliver escapes and travels to the flying island of Laputa, which is dominated by scientists. On Laputa he witnesses their loss of reality, for example that they try to turn excrements into food. The last destination is the land of the Houyhnhnm ruled by the “noble” horses. Gulliver is fascinated by the unspoiled nature, free from control of mankind. The Houyhnhnms accept him but when a Yahoo woman, an apelike human, tries to kiss him, they arrest him. The attraction of a Yahoo female to Gulliver proves that he is a Yahoo himself. The horses decide to kill all Yahoos but Gulliver and send him back to his real life. Gulliver goes completely mad: He strongly believes that horses are better creatures than human beings.

In the story of Gulliver one can see that each world is basically the same – although outwardly it appears totally different to the other worlds. Creatures are cruel, haughty and selfish. All of them are shaped by greed for power and are not afraid of humiliating other creatures. In his work “Gulliver’s Travels”, Swift criticizes the society and the European government in the 18^th century, for example by letting Gulliver urinate on the palace in Lilliput to put out a fire. So, even though the story “Gulliver’s Travels” dates back a few centuries, the work has not remotely lost its meaning for our society. The problems mentioned in the work are still as topical as they were in the 18^th century. The Academy of Arts Berlin succeeds in establishing a connection to our modern society by inserting references to George Bush or the war in Afghanistan.

I think the play “Gulliver’s Travels” shows Swift’s satire on humanity very well because of the exaggerated performance of the actors which contains many repetitions with which the audience can enjoy the typical British humour.

However, I guess that just because of this exaggeration, not everybody likes it. The actors play their roles quite impressively so that you sense that they really enjoy acting. But in some parts I have to say that their voices are quite annoying – probably because they want to play their roles authentically. The play attaches great importance to interaction with the audience. A few times the viewers are integrated into the play and therefore have the sense of being a part of the greater whole. From my point of view, this dramaturgical trick helps to emphasize that we are all part of society and able of improving the world. The transitions between the scenes are fluent and framed creatively so that I was surprised several times. For instance, the ocean is just represented by a blue blanket with a hole in it. When Gulliver’s head appears in the hole and spits water, you can well imagine how he has to fight with the waves. The audience can make use of their own imagination. This example shows that the scenery is minimal but entirely sufficient. Furthermore, the play includes songs in which the actors show their singing abilities. For my liking, the music is rather boring because the melodies and the atmosphere of the songs are quite similar. I was mostly impressed by the actors’ sovereign reaction when approximately 80 persons left the theatre in the middle of the play. They were not influenced by that and even integrated the people leaving in the play. That proves their flexibility to me and that they really back their production. What I also think is quite good, is the articulation of the actors. They speak very clearly so that every averagely talented student of English is able to understand the story easily. But I do not like the numerous and redundant obscene elements and jokes the theatre company inserts, probably because they think the students‘ generation nowadays likes this kind of humour. I also find the play a little verbose after the break.

So all in all I cannot recommend this play to a particular group of people because the production by the TNT Theatre Britain is a very specific one and possibly worth seeing for this very reason.

(Q.B., Feb 2010)

An enjoyable play despite some exaggerated and childish jokes

The theatre play “Gulliver’s Travels” is based on the novel by Jonathan Swift, which is about a British sailor and doctor called Lemuel Gulliver, who travels to some incredible places after he and his crew were shipwrecked. First he comes to Liliput, whose inhabitants are much smaller than he is.  Nevertheless, he manages to become a national hero, until he is forced to leave the country because of an intrigue against him. His next journey brings him to Brobdingnag, a country populated by giants. After a few adventures there an eagle takes Gulliver away and drops him in the sea. Then he visits the flying island of Laputa, whose people only care for science, mathematics and astronomy. Gulliver only stays in Laputa for a short while though. Then he leaves to see the academy, an institution of the scientists. In the academy they only work on just ridiculous projects though, so he leaves again. On his last journey Gulliver gets to an unknown country, where horses are the incarnation of rationality and beauty, while men-like creatures are ugly and unable to think. In this story, which appears to be more of a children's story, Swift includes satire about British society, government, religion, etc.

This play of Gulliver’s travels was staged as an experimental and modern play. The cast only consisted of four actors: One of them played the main character Gulliver, while the others were changing their roles constantly. Props only played a minor role in this play and the ones employed were used openly on stage by the actors themselves in a way that the audience clearly saw that they were just props. The actors, for example, turned the CD-player on themselves. Unlike classical theatre this broke the illusion that what happens on stage is real.

In my opinion this play had positive as well as negative aspects about it. What I did not like about the play was that the actors were many times only going for a laugh of the audience and that they even changed parts of the story for that. Instead of leaving Brobdingnag on an eagle, for example, the Gulliver in the play flew away with two huge bank notes. The jokes were also often rather exaggerated and childish, so that they were not really funny anymore (for instance “We’re important!” sounded more like “We’re impotent!”). With that they also changed the priorities of the story: Swift wrote a satire, but the play was mainly staged as a comedy and left most of the satirical aspects out. I think the producers should not have done that because in my opinion these satirical aspects are the most important part of Swift’s story.

Some of the jokes were really funny though, and I found it interesting to see how only four actors managed to bring a whole play on stage. It was also nice to see a play in English and in my opinion the actor who played the main character Lemuel Gulliver did a really good job, because his gestures and facial expressions were funny and his acting was convincing.

The play was not as serious as one would assume

The play at the "Akademie der Künste" was quite an interesting experience. On the one hand there was the way it was performed. Only four people were on the stage and the props consisted only of a linen screen with a map of the world on it and a cage that was used for different purposes. On the other hand there was the content of the play. I was not aware of the huge political and social criticism in it.

In my opinion another positive aspect was the actors. They all did an awesome job, especially Gulliver’s actor. His performance was most convincing because you could see the hatred for the humans he showed at the beginning and the end.

But the play was not as serious as one would assume, especially with the big amount of satire in it. It was also rather funny many times and had a lot of dirty humor. The actors also incorporated the audience, which made it really seem like a little performance by a showman showing a crazy captain. Sometimes though the humor was a bit too childish and rather embarrassing than funny.

Concluding I have to say that it was a really amazing play. It was sophisticated but amusing at the same time. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I can only recommend it to everybody.

(M.M., Feb 2010)