1984 Archives - North West End UK

18Oct

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

1984 – Hackney Town Hall

George Orwell’s 1984 comes alive in this site-specific theatre production under the solid eye of Irish director, Jack Reardon. This immersive experience skilfully blends audience participation with the confined setting of Hackney Town Hall’s council chamber and atrium to underscore the novel’s themes of oppression and loss of individuality. The adaptation adeptly condenses the first half of Orwell’s novel, focusing on world-building and intrigue through an induction led by high-ranking Party officer O’Brien (Dominic Carter). A Big Brother rally, complete with patriotic singing, anti-sex league flyering, and party agents probing, welcomes the audience into the dystopian world where every word and movement are monitored under the ever-present eye of Big Brother. The initial slow burn a...

4Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

1984 – Summerhall, Old Lab

I do not wish to state the obvious, but I will, this play is set in 1984 and written by George Orwell in 1949. In just thirty-five years from writing his novel, Orwell was imagining a time when the government would be an oppressive, intrusive, dictatorship, ruling our society. He imagined us with no rights to free speech, and a punishing regime ruled by terror. Within Theatre Company, (with Sophie Vallee in the directing chair), have taken Nick Hern’s script adapting the novel for theatre, and wrapped a message inside of it – that this is happening in places around the world today, places that they know…their homes! Unable to perform in their home countries of Russia and Belarus, they are performing 1984 in the UK. And, 40 years on did Orwell predict the future correctly? ‘1984’ wa...

21Aug

By Euan HuthNo Comments

Scotland

1984 – Assembly Roxy

One of the main advantages of theatre is that the actors are physically there in front of you acting. There is a certain rawness to theatre that gives it this powerfulness, which can be used to convey strong messages and themes and emotion to audiences. 1984 is a story that could greatly benefit from that rawness, but it does not deliver. It is a piece that is very relevant in this day and age, Big Brother and The Party oppressing the masses with the Thought Police, no-one is allowed independent thought, and Winston Smith finds himself in the Department of Love after falling for Julia, a rebellious woman he meets in a world that is devoid of any real emotion. The shows biggest failing is the fact that all the interactions between these two pivotal characters is all done through p...

27Jun

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

1984 –Thingwall Community Centre

George Orwell’s dystopian novel, originally published in 1949, is a cautionary tale, drawing on the then recent insights into Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, examining the role of truth and facts within politics and the way in which they are manipulated. This dramatisation is constructed almost entirely from dialogue taken from the original novel. Winston Smith (Zoran Blackie) is in prison, found guilty of Thoughtcrimes against Big Brother. As part of his reconstruction, led by O’Brien (John Maguire), he must re-enact key moments from his past life, with the help of other thought criminals playing key characters including re-enacted versions of himself (John Reynolds) and O’Brien (Kate Mulvihill) as well as Parsons (Michael Silverman) and Charrington (Vicki Griffiths), so that everyo...