The Hunger Games: On Stage

Suzanne Collins' globally successful series of young adult dystopian tales, 'The Hunger Games', which emerged in 2008 (same year as the financial crash, no less …), has also transferred to the big screen, and the inaugural story has now been adapted for the stage by Conor McPherson and directed by Matthew Dunster.

Running at the purpose-built, state-of-the-art, semi-permanent Troubadour Theatre in London’s Canary Wharf, the production will run until October 2026. The venue itself is intriguingly situated: right in the heart of the international finance ‘district’, it is an area that both exudes exclusion and its eerie sense of displacement, surrounded by towering monuments to mammon and endless screen-signals of stock exchange number-punching, the message at the heart of these stories couldn’t be in a more appropriate location.

Entrenched class divide, health and wealth inequality, zoned areas of existence (‘districts’) — the chasm between those who have and wish to preserve at all costs in pursuit of more, and those who lack and need to survive by any means necessary — is a dispiriting tale as old as time. Much like the world of fluctuating commodities, this story is cat-and-mouse, do-or-die, life or death, the fight to the top always leaving casualties.

One crucial element is the games as televisual spectacle, like the bread and circuses bloodlust of gladiatorial Rome mixed with wrestling’s knowing crowd-pleasing artifice, the bear-baiting pits of Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle or pop-star reality show contestants selected for ridicule; the arena succeeds in defining the realities being presented.

As someone who has never read the books or seen the films, I benefit from having no preconceptions or expectations, clearly unlike many of the other voyeurs present. Like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' or the 'Twilight' series, there is a strong cosplay element amongst devotees, with dressing up and immersion in the overall ambience an essential part of the ‘experience’ of fandom, belonging and representation.

John Malkovich literally phones his ‘telecameo’ performance in. His dispassionate, dead-eyed deliveries issuing Presidential diktats and decrees via a giant iPhone-shaped telescreen recall 1984’s Big Brother. Malkovich’s non-presence, allied to propagandistic ‘motivational’ slogans dotted around (“Think safely, work safely”), reminds of historical horrors.

Mia Carragher stars as the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, in her professional stage debut, acting as protagonist and narrator. The large supporting cast all excel in what is at times a breathless, energetic display of athleticism and action, smoke and mirrors, and evocative and provocative performances.

The entire production is an impressive collective effort: the set brilliantly conveys the ramshackle claustrophobia of the residents of District 12, in contrast to the gauche, gaudy, and garish enclaves of the tasteless elites, evoking Marie Antoinette’s flaunted frippery as envisaged by Luc Besson and Magnús Scheving’s 'Lazy Town.'

The in-round seating provides a wide-scale view of the games at play: the woods as sanctuary and enclosure and space for the pantomimic posturing and prancing of characters such as odious compere Caesar Flickerman and kooky escort Effie Trinket.

Furthermore, the lighting, design teams, costumes, sound and video crews, choreographers, and the entire effort that transformed a hole in the ground in Canary Wharf into a theatre in just eight months is a remarkable achievement.

As a satire, I am not sure how biting it is; at times, it feels like an episode of 'Black Mirror' without the gut-wrenching horror of humanity’s blithe misanthropy or the abject terror of technology’s totalitarian tendencies.

However, The Hunger Games: On Stage is camp, kitsch, pertinent, flamboyant and as a spectacle, a triumph that will no doubt enthuse lovers of the books and the films.