ANIMAL FARM – George Orwell – Directed by Bex Williams

NAPOLEON: My fellow animals - for most of the Spring the pig committee has been reviewing
the Traitor Snowball’s papers and notes, and after drawing up entirely new and better plans, we
have windmill would, indeed, greatly improve our prospects for the future. Therefore, I am
pleased to announce that we will build a windmill on the knoll in the long pasture in order to
generate electricity for Animal Farm.

[The ANIMALS react.]

NAPOLEON: This will mean much harder work for everyone - and stricter food rations because
of it. But I think you’ll agree, the prospect of heated stalls far outweighs the extra sacrifice. It
will take two years to complete the work. Perhaps three.

[The ANIMALS react.]

[Blackout.]

[Lights Up. We’ve shifted to The QUARRY.]

SQUEALER: Napoleon was never opposed to the windmill. That plan Snowball drew on the
floor?

MURIEL: Yes?

SQUEALER: It was stolen from Napoleon's papers. That was his plan. The windmill was
Napoleon’s creation.

MURIEL: Then why did he speak so strongly against it at the meetings?

SQUEALER: That was Napoleon's cunning – and his tactics. Do you know that word?

MURIEL: No.

SQUEALER Napoleon only seemed to oppose the windmill, simply as a maneuver – a tactic -
to get rid of Snowball - who was really a dangerous character and a bad influence on the younger
female animals. But now that Snowball is out of the way, the windmill can go forward. Tactics.
You see?

BENJAMIN: It’s just like lying, then.

SQUEALER: Yes - but with good reason. Now –

[She looks out over the QUARRY.]

SQUEALER: In order to start building we need to bring the limestone rocks at the bottom of the
quarry up to the knoll.

BENJAMIN: Those rocks down there.

SQUEALER: Yes.

BENJAMIN: They need to go all the way to the top of the knoll –

[They all look up.]

BENJAMIN: - up there?

SQUEALER: That’s it, Brother.

MURIEL: How?

SQUEALER: We will carry them in carts – and we have plenty of ropes to lash around them
and pull. Everyone will pitch in. Also – those boulders?

BENJAMIN: I see them.

SQUEALER: They will need to be pushed over the side of the quarry so that they will break up
on the rocks below. Then returned in smaller pieces –

BENJAMIN: - to the top of the knoll.

MURIEL: How do we bring the big ones up?

SQUEALER: We have plenty of ropes.

[Beat. They all look at BOXER.]

BOXER: I will work harder.

BENJAMIN: Is that the only way to break them up?

SQUEALER: Unless you can stand up on your hind legs and swing a pickax, yes - stupid
donkey.
BOXER: It’s fine. The work will be good for me.

[Lights shift to BENJAMIN, alone. To us:]

BENJAMIN: Even though the work was very hard that summer, we weren’t badly off, I
suppose. We got less food than in Snowball’s day – but more than we got from Jones.

[Lights shift to the QUARRY. The ANIMALS move rocks and hum– this is the RITUAL OF
ROCKS.]

[BOXER pulls a cart through the center. BENJAMIN tries to help.]

BOXER: There.

BENJAMIN: Good – now take a rest.

BOXER: No. I will work harder.

BENJAMIN: A horse's lungs don’t last forever.

BOXER: I am eleven years’ old, and next year - according to the Retirement Resolution for
Horses – I will retire on pension to the corner of the large pasture. I’d like to see this windmill
done before it’s time.

BENJAMIN: No one’s retired on pension yet, have they?

BOXER: I believe I will be the first. I will receive five pounds of corn a day and, in the winter,
fifteen pounds of hay - with a carrot or an apple every Revolution Day.

BENJAMIN: That will be nice for you.

BOXER: It will be the first time in my life that I have had a chance to study and improve my
mind. I will devote the rest of my life to learning the whole alphabet.

BENJAMIN There are more important things than knowing how to read.

BOXER: Do you think so?

BENJAMIN: When have you ever needed to read anything?

BOXER: But Muriel says -

BENJAMIN: Muriel eats the paper off tin cans. Better to relax in that field out there and not
trouble yourself with things you don’t need. You’ve earned the rest more than they have.

BOXER: Why have you not retired on pension, Brother? You are beyond the age, aren’t you?

BENJAMIN: Oh - I’ve lived far too long to retire.

[Blackout.]