George Orwell’s classic Nineteen eighty four was performed at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre with director Matthew Dunster’s sinister reinterpretation of the classic, which opened on the 27th March 2010. With a bold statement at the heart of the adaptation, to think Kafka meets Kraftwork, in the theatre’s publicity notes, Manchester got a fresh look at a brilliant masterpiece.
Written originally in 1949, the story follows Winston Smith as he tackles the extremes of Big Brother’s dystopian Oceania. At his job as a rewriter of history he finds reason to rebel against the super-state in a romance with Julia. However, as the screw tightens and his rebellion is met with increasing oppression Winston and Julia must face the full might of the party as they’re scrutinised beyond their understanding.
Telling of the crushing command of a totalitarian state, the story has infiltrated modern culture, in particular, the advent and subsequent decline of the Big Brother franchise. It has become the benchmark for social science fiction and spawned the term Orwellian to denote the totalitarian critique inherent in George Orwell’s books Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm.
It’s an important story to retell every once in a while to remind us of the totalitarian oppression of the past, as well as the dangers of regimes that are still ongoing today. However, it also criticises political oppression in general, state surveillance and a breakdown of privacy, making it one of the most important novels of the last hundred years.
Tickets were between £8.50 and £25.50 and performances took place at 7.30pm Monday – Friday, 8pm on Saturdays and 2.30pm for the Wednesday matinees. The trailer for Matthew Dunster’s 1984 doesn’t look great, but the performances has the benefit of having a full production and an audience to add in the atmosphere a little more.
Related news and reviews:
- 1984 to come to the Almeida Theatre in 2014 – Opening on the 8th February 2014 and running through until the 29th March 2014.
