From England’s Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre comes 1984, a reworking of George Orwell’s famous novel by the London-based Headlong company (whose artistic director is Jeremy Herrin). As adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, 1984 has been hugely successful at both of the above venues. Now L.A. has the opportunity to see this bold and brave version, which has come to the Broad Stage with its British cast and crew intact. First published in 1949, Orwell’s novel has not lost its relevance or power. A cautionary tale that dramatizes the dangers of the surveillance state, Orwell had Stalinist Russia in mind when he first wrote it, but now Big Brother could very well stand for fascist China or NSA/CIA America, two countries where personal liberty and rights are constantly under attack by state and/or corporate ideologues. In 1984, Winston (Matthew Spencer), a beleaguered clerk in the Ministry of Truth, wages a heroic battle against totalitarianism. First he chafes at rewriting historical documents to suit the party line, whose slogans include “war is peace,” “freedom is slavery.” Then he not only begins to write down his subversive thoughts in a secret diary but dares to enter into a love affair with a beautiful young girl, Julia (Hara Yannas), without getting permission from the state (which frowns on such individual, “selfish” acts). It does not go well for poor Winston after that; his masters, led by a smarmy bureaucrat named O’Brien (Tim Dutton), throw him into a cell and begin torturing him mercilessly, cackling all the while “do you still think you’re a hero?” Their goal, above all, is to get him to renounce his “dangerous” belief in brotherhood and the spirit of man. 1984's swift-moving, hard-driving narrative is punctuated by some startling and shocking stage effects: explosive bursts of sound and light, dazzling video projections, sliding screens, howls of human pain and agony. The result is a ground-breaking and stunning theatrical experience, one which will long resonate in this reviewer’s memory.
