THEATRE
Review of London’s Theatre Productions by Lydia Parker
1984 At The Playhouse Theatre Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan have returned to the Playhouse Theatre with their stunning adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984, after opening at the Nottingham Playhouse in 2013 followed by a run at the Almeida Theatre and tours to the States and Australia. Although this is a second revival and may not be the last, this is a production that is not to be missed. Icke and Macmillan have taken as their starting point the appendix to Orwell’s novel, The Principles of Newspeak. Their contention is that it puts the novel in a whole new context as it is written in a time long after the events of the book, lending some optimism to the nightmarish world that Orwell builds for us. The play begins with a book club discussing 1984 and the truth of the unreliable narrator, Winston Smith. As we see him attempting to write, constantly asking “Where am I?” the actions of the play become confusing and a jumble, often repeating scenes with slight alterations, such as someone is missing or the characters’ intentions seem different. It could be that we are seeing things from Winston’s viewpoint as he struggles to remember what happened and whether it really happened at all. For those unfamiliar with the novel 1984, it is set in a time in the future (Orwell wrote it in 1948) when the Party, led by the omniscient Big Brother, rules a land called Air Strip One (Britain) in Oceania. Winston Smith is a lowly member of the Party, poorly paid and working in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history to suit the needs of the party. He recognises that some changes he is asked to make about which countries Oceania is at war with are not true, but that to think it or speak about it is a thought crime. He has illegally bought a diary in which we see him writing at the start of the play. Although he wants to write he wonders who will ever read it in this world where words, events and people are so easily erased from history. When Winston meets an attractive co-worker, Julia, he first thinks she is a spy for the thought police and is surprised when she asks to meet him out of the city. They fall into an affair, another act which is prohibited as a sex crime, as only relations between married people to produce a child are legally permitted. In the meantime, Winston becomes intrigued by an inner party leader, O’Brien, convinced that he is a member of the secret underground resistance group, the Brotherhood. When both Winston and Julia are invited to O’Brien’s luxury home, he confirms Winston’s suspicions and gives them a copy of the book by Emmanuel Goldstein, a 36
American In Britain
former founder of the Party but now the leader of the Brotherhood and the resistance. When Winston is asked by O’Brien how far he would go for the resistance, Winston surprises himself by stating he would throw acid into the face of a child. He answers without thinking, eager to pledge allegiance to a movement that will fight the absolute control he lives under. Winston and Julia read the book to each other in their secret love nest, a hidden room in the shop where Winston bought his diary, owned by the kindly Charrington. Their sense of freedom and hope is quickly squashed as they are betrayed by the shop owner and arrested. These scenes, set offstage in the play, are filmed, giving a sense of a fantasy world that may or may not exist, as in this production we never know what is true, and also of the couple being spied on by Big Brother’s hidden cameras. Winston is sent to Room 101 in the Ministry of Love and interrogated by O’Brien, who was only trying to entrap him and now has the task of brainwashing Winston, through torture, into the correct way of thinking. Although set in a future time, the design, by Chloe Lamford, gives the production a post war Britain feel, with 1940’s clothing, wood panelled Ministry offices and the stark appearance of an impoverished country with little resources to spare. It reflects how Orwell felt in a time when he was disillusioned with the British government and its oppressive and omnipresent war-time propaganda from Winston Churchill’s Tory Party. He was also fearful of Russia’s Communist party led by Stalin, from whom apparently the inspiration for Big Brother’s moustachioed appearance on the posters all over Oceania derives. As horrifying as the events of Room 101 are, the most frightening aspect for me was the constant iteration that everything can be wiped from history. No matter what Winston thinks,
does or says, none of it will matter in the future. Or will it, considering the beginning of the play with the book group? This Winston seems to be in a state of perpetual confusion, and, as wonderfully played by Andrew Gower, is not actually a very bright person. How can one be, when one is constantly being told what to think? He wants to rebel but does not know with what to replace these falsities. Gower conveys the ordinariness and vulnerability of Winston, which is a new take that works brilliantly in the context of the play. Julia, played with a nervy airiness by Catrin Stewart, also comes across as someone a bit rebellious but not much of a thinker. Their relationship is one based on the thrill of sex, not of love or any real attachment. All of the cast are excellent in individual roles and as part of an ensemble, including Rudi Dharmalingham as the shop keeper Charrington, Anthony O’Donnell as Parsons, who is proud of his own daughter for reporting him to the thought police, and Rosie Ede as Mrs Parsons, a friendly neighbour. Her character, so seemingly normal and content, reminds us that the inhabitants of this world are generally blissfully ignorant of the government that controls them as they go about their day to day lives. If anything, it would have been nice to see more of this to contrast with the disjointed, chaotic horror that we see throughout the rest of the play. Duncan Macmillan (who also wrote the remarkable People, Places and Things) and Robert Icke have created a fascinating yet faithful adaptation of 1984, making an extraordinary theatre piece that discomfits and disturbs the audience. It also made me want to reread the original novel and delve further into Orwell’s masterful work. This production is only on until the 29 October. For a visceral, stimulating night at the theatre that will leave you thinking and debating, don’t miss 1984. Box office: 0844 871 7631 The cast in 1984. Credit Manuel Harlan