1984 Theatre Review

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I read George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four as part of my English A-level in college and I loved it. It seemed to eerily reflect our current society, a text which really was before it's time. I've re-read the book many times since I studied it and I enjoy it more and more every time. It also inspired me to read some of Orwell's other well know classics. Animal Farm is one of my all time favourite books, so depressing and clever. How someone can describe Britain's social state through animals so accurately is beyond me. George Orwell was such an impressive, brilliant writer.

When I saw that a stage version was coming to Richmond Theatre I was so excited and I booked tickets straight away. I couldn't imagine how the book could be transferred to the stage but I think they did it well.

Description from ATG's website :- April, 1984. 13:00. Comrade 6079, Winston Smith, thinks a thought, starts a diary, and falls in love. But Big Brother is watching him - and the door to Room 101 can swing open in the blink of an eye.
Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell's fiction is often said to be our reality. The definitive book of the 20th century is re-examined in a radical new staging exploring surveillance, identity and how thinking you can fly might actually be the first step to flying. 
This new major production explores the world inside Winston Smith's head, as well as the world without, and catches the euphoria and bliss buried deep underneath the cold face of Big Brother. In an age of mass surveillance, ‘total’ policing and GPS tracking, 1984 is as relevant now as it ever was.

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I really enjoyed how they had adapted it for the stage. The set changed very subtely, using mainly music and lighting, but you knew what was going on. Some of the actors would wheel pieces of scenery to a different position and that would mean that the stage was now a different place, the Ministry's cafeteria or the second hand shop. The actors also played two or three different characters but it wasn't as confusing as I would have imagined, I could follow the story. The back room of the second hand shop, Winston's secret room, was set off stage. We saw Winston and Julia via a large TV screen at the top of the set. The cameras were placed quite abstractly so it was quite difficult to see the whole room but the overall effect was interesting, very different.

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When Winston was taken to Room 101, he was on a chair in the middle of the stage with tarpaulin all around him. There were about eight surgeons around the stage and O'Brien. O'Brien would ask Winston a question and if his answer was 'wrong' the surgeons would descend upon Winston, the lights would strobe, then it would cut to blackout as all we could hear were Winston's screams. When the lights came back up, Winston would have blood on him, his fingers, his mouth, because he was being tortured. It was a really tense atmosphere.

If I hadn't read the book before-hand then I'm not sure how much of the play I would have understood. Because I already had a background knowledge of the story I could fill any gaps within the plot myself but I'm not sure how someone who hadn't already read it would fare. One of Orwell's best features in his writing, in my opinion, is his description. There's one part in the book which I have to skip because the description makes me feel so sick. I felt like there were a few details missed out of the play, details which make the book brilliant, but the play was only an hour and forty minutes long so there is only so much they can include I suppose.

Also, there was no interval. I know it's not a very long time but the story is extremely intense. I could have done with a break around an hour in.

Overall I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to see a different adaptation of a classic and well-loved book and it must have been hard to fit it onto a stage. A great night.

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