Interview: Lord of the Flies comes to Birmingham

The award-winning production is set to crash into Birmingham REP from Tuesday until November 7.

Golding's novel, which turned 60 last year, follows the story of a group of young boys who find themselves inhabiting a desert island after surviving a catastrophic plane crash.

What begins as a great adventure rapidly descends into a spiral of sheer horror and brutality, as the boys turn against each other battling for survival.

The production began with a 10-night-long sell-out run at London's Regent's Park Open Area Theatre back in September, before embarking on its UK tour.

True to the book, Nigel Williams' stage adaptation is guaranteed to have its audience immersed from the moment they set foot in the auditorium.

Set designer Jon Bausor has not held back in his pursuit to bring the desert island to the theatre, transforming it into a crash site complete with the front end of a Boeing 707.

During its run at Regent's Park, the set featured clothing and suitcases which were scattered across the auditorium, immediately grabbing the audience's attention.

"None of the plane is actually real, only the seats, a cabin locker and the tyre," said Bausor, who designed the Opening Ceremony at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

"We are taking the suitcases and all the clothes to give that energy of the plane being thrown into the auditorium.

"It will be quite immersive, everything is going to be spread out across the stalls and the circles.

"Obviously the producers do not want to take seats off sale but in an ideal world there would be bits of the plane on seats to give that energy."

Touring the production is no easy task and has meant that Bausor has had to make a number of adaptations to the set to make it suitable for indoor theatres.

"We started with a real plane four years ago. This time I took the same concept and built it from scratch. It is split into components so we can take it around every venue and it fits.

"It has to condense to go into the theatre very quickly because the whole thing has to be built in a day."

The entire set is very much a climbing frame for the young cast of 12 who threw themselves into rehearsals.

"There are concealed steps, it has a lot of grip in places where you would not expect it to have grip, bullet holes so that people can climb up it, bits of wire dressed as rope and hatches that are dressed to look like panelling."

Not only are the roles of the boys both physically and mentally demanding but for many of the young actors this is their first professional role.

Co-director Liam Steel said: "We saw hundreds of young male actors for this.

"For recalls we held two workshops with 60 to 80 lads and we had them doing a physical workshop. We saw some really good actors but sometimes the balance was not right and it really needed to be.

"We had to find something in them that provided that connection with their character that we were looking for, they had to be authentic."

Playing the lead role of Ralph is 22-year-old Luke Ward-Wilkinson, while 19-year-old Freddie Watkins takes on the rival role of Jack.

Liam added: "The commitment from them all is incredible, for a lot of them this is their first job but the enthusiasm that comes with that is just amazing.

"The flip side of course is the lack of technique. They need a lot of training because certain things do not come to them naturally like they would an experienced actor.

"What is beautiful about these guys as young actors is that they are willing to take more risks.

"They think they are all invincible at 18 years old and we have to ingrain in them that we have to do everything carefully."

As the story descends into a chaotic nightmare, scenes become more sinister, gangs begin to form, fights break out and lives are lost.

"Some parts are incredibly chaotic," added Liam. "Everything is choreographed within an inch of its life, all you need is for two of them to run into each other and that is it, we have two actors out.

"We have to keep an ordered chaos to make it look like you do have 10 teenage boys running riot, but actually what you have is 10 actors on stage who are making it look like they are running riot.

"It is a chaotic show, I do not think people realise how dangerous it actually is.

"All you need is for someone to put a suitcase in a different place one night, someone has got so used to jumping off the plane and landing in the same place, they land on the suitcase and they are injured." Whilst the story remains close to its roots, minor tweaks have been added to bring the production into the 21st Century.

"It was important for us to allow the actors to bring their personalities to the role.

"We wanted them to be who they are and get that truth of being natural human beings onto the stage.

"At the start it is important to see them having a good time, to see Jack and Ralph get on and want to be best friends and then Piggy within that relationship.

"It is very much rejection and from that moment on the need for them all to be part of the group is so powerful."

Despite the novel just turning 61 it is still incredibly relatable holding a number of modern themes.

Liam added: "I think it is hard to see how you can distance yourself from the theme of the production, gang mentality is still very much a big part of our lives, so I am interested to see how each audience will interpret it and see how people relate to characters in different areas."

By Becky Weaver