By Jenna Richards
After an hour long debate with my significant other over whether ‘Big Brother’ is watching us and the freedoms we do, and do not enjoy, in today’s society I came to the conclusion this that was, at very least, a thought provoking play.
The plays is based on George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which tells the story of Winston Smith a clerk in the Ministry of Truth who rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. It is the novel that made famous Big Brother, and Room 101 and sees Winston trapped in a world of government surveillance and public manipulation where truth is controlled by Big Brother and those who have thoughts, or even memories, adverse to the state ‘truth’ are punished. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens placed on the wall in every room.
This adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan is a collaborating between Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almedoa Theatre, it is currently showing at Exeter Northcott. It offers a new perspective on the classic book and treats Orwell’s appendix on the principles of Newspeak as a vital part of the story. We see a discussion happening sometime after 2050 about the meaning and authenticity of the text. Questions are asked about whether Winston Smith’s account of the Party and its attempt to control thought processes are the work of an unreliable narrator or a historical record of life in 1984?
Whilst the themes behind the tale are powerful, offer plenty of food for thought and are as relevant today as they were when the book was published in 1949 I felt the production itself was lacking in places.
I have read Nineteen Eighty-Four more than once but don’t have a detailed knowledge of Orwell’s appendix and thus found the jumping backwards and forwards in time plus the Groundhog Day scenes confusing. For those without any knowledge of the book the narrative must be almost impossible to decipher.
The acting at times felt forced, I didn’t truly believe in the love between Winston (Matthew Spencer) and fellow protestor, Julia (Janine Harouni), and felt the characters lacked emotion and depth.
That said there were some ingenious moments. The use of video screen to expand the play and offer the audience a view into a room away from the watchful eye of Bight Brother was brilliant. Although the irony hasn’t escaped me that the only place apparently away from Big Brother’s cameras was being filmed for the audience.
This play also featured possibly the most exciting liver set-change I have seen. As Winston and Julia are betrayed following a nervy encounter with Party bigwig O’Brian (Tim Dutton) the stage explodes with noise, lights and masked guards as the set is pulled apart to reveal the stark, bright emptiness of the torturous room 101.
Theatrically this may not be the best play you will ever see but it is intellectually powerful. It’s relevance to today’s society is startling as we grapple with an increasingly watchful world.
I shall leave you with this line from O’Brian: “The people will not revolt, they will not look up from their screens for long enough to realise what is really happening.”