The Hunger Games on Stage: a true 'spectacle' but is the emotion of the story lost?

The newest adaptation of cultural phenomenon The Hunger Games is playing now in Canary Wharf and it’s a theatre experience like no other.

Please note this review contains spoilers.

There have been several stage adaptations hitting London in the past few years, from The Lightning Thief, My Neighbour Totoro to The Devil Wears Prada, but the most recent adaptation of The Hunger Games is a stand-out.

I was very excited to see the latest adaptation of one of my all-time favourite book series. There were a solid six months of my life at age twelve where I exclusively read these books, so I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it come to life on stage.

The play follows the story of the first novel in the trilogy: Katniss (Mia Carragher), a sixteen-year-old living in dystopian Panem, which is organised into 12 Districts. Children from the working class of each district are reaped each year to compete in The Hunger Games – a televised fight to the death.

The series highlights the brutality of the regime and the plight of the oppressed masses, following Katniss, who becomes a revolutionary figure. The first act follows the lead up to the arena with Katniss volunteering for her sister and arriving in the capitol while in the second act, we enter the arena.

The Hunger Games on Stage is evidently a very ambitious theatre project in a purpose-built theatre in Canary Wharf with moving seating. There are very few permanent theatres in the UK that have a theatre-in-the-round setup, let alone a setup that can alternate between theatre-in-the-round and traverse staging. It’s an absolute technical marvel – I don’t think any other show can match its ambition: pyrotechnics, flying chariots, aerial fight sequences, incredible lighting design and a whole array of special effects that create a dynamic and thrilling theatre experience.

There were some stand-out moments for me from the chariot scene, where fire billowed off the back of the chariot as their costumes lit up (I’d argue better special effects than the film), to Katniss shooting down the supplies and being blasted backwards using a rotating harness and some fantastic illusions. Paired with the physical theatre elements, it’s a show that cannot inspire anything other than awe.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and would recommend it to anyone wanting to see something truly spectacular.

However, I did feel that a lot of the key emotional moments that are the driving force of the narrative were lost amongst this dramatic show of technical prowess. It almost feels like the creative direction was so focused on the excitement of what is basically the dream job of anyone working in technical theatre – the opportunity to purpose design and build a theatre with whatever you want – to the detriment of remembering the core messages of a powerful piece of modern literature.

There were attempts to highlight the grossness of the Capitol that I felt really did not work – a key moment being Rue’s (Aiya Agustin) death, which in the book and film is an incredibly important moment; however, on stage, we see Katniss grieving over Rue before the scene stops and a horde of Capitol people party onto stage. I think this was an attempt to juxtapose the sadness with the partying to underline how grotesque the society is, but I feel it would have been more powerful to show a glimpse of the districts in this moment to show their suffering and their grief.

In fact, there were many moments where interludes to show a Capitol narrative were added with Caesar Flickerman (Stavros Demetraki) coming on stage during the games to talk betting odds and the like. Meanwhile, there were few and far between insights into the districts meaning the show really felt like it was portrayed from the perspective of the Capitol.

It’s also for this reason the resistance elements of this piece were slightly lost, with it having to tell, not show us through President Snow (John Malkovich) being projected, saying Katniss is a threat when they could have shown us riots in the districts instead. I also wondered why they couldn’t bring Haymitch (Joshua Lacey) on stage to symbolise his and Katniss’ way of communicating in the area, build up their relationship and underline how Katniss has to act in order to get sponsors – it is, after all a stage production, so this kind of creative licence is much more possible than in other mediums.

The marketing I’d seen for this show described it as 'a spectacle', and I think this really was the focus of the creative direction, but I’d really have loved to see more focus on the human elements of this story.  There were some powerful moments though. From the tributes in their interview costumes solemnly singing the Panem national anthem to Katniss weaving through all the dead tributes as they’re cloaked in smoke and lit red, to small touches like the seating areas divided by districts glowing red as their tribute died. I honestly just wished there were more of these moments.

It’s the kind of show I never looked at my watch during, being incredibly well paced and engaging – it’s a shame they didn’t take more opportunities to slow down and allow moments to hit deeper. That being said, this is an absolute breakthrough piece of theatre in terms of technical and physical theatre, which is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The Hunger Games on Stage is currently playing in Troubadour Canary Wharf Theatre in London.