A camera sweeps across the auditorium, members of the audience point at themselves on screen and wave as Big Brother looks unblinkingly down from a huge, eye-shaped monitor. The scene opens and everywhere is monitored, even your own home. The Party watches through telescreens; posters throughout the city warn residents that “Big Brother is watching you.” A camera operator sits at the side of the stage monitoring the screens.

1984 tells the story of Winston Smith, a man questioning the system that keeps his futuristic but dystopian society afloat. He is a minor civil servant whose job is to rewrite history in line with current political thinking.

However, Winston’s longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government. He embarks on a forbidden affair with Julia, and they rent a room in a neighbourhood populated by Proles (proletariats). Winston also becomes increasingly interested in the Brotherhood, a group of dissenters. Unbeknownst to Winston and Julia, however, they are being watched closely.
A trap is set when Winston is approached by O’Brien, an official of the Inner Party who appears to be a secret member of the Brotherhood but is a spy, on the lookout for “thought-criminals,”. Winston and Julia are eventually caught and sent to the Ministry of Love for a violent re-education.

This production by Lindsay Posner keeps you gripped whilst Ryan Craig’s adaption gives a contemporary tweak to the story and, although it truncates several details, still maintains the essence of the original.
Mark Quartley, who plays Winston, is stripped naked at one point and gives a disturbing performance. Every electric shock he suffers in Room 101, is captured on the screen behind him before he is forced to accept “with joy” his guilt for totally fabricated crimes.

Winston’s sadistic superior, O’Brien (Keith Allen) is an avuncular figure sitting on the side of the exposed stage watching, when he is not performing. Keith Allen provides a superb performance as the creepy good cop/bad cop.

David Birrell gives a convincing performance as Tom Parsons: Winston’s naïve neighbour, and an ideal member of the Outer Party: an uneducated, suggestible man who is utterly loyal to the Party.

Big Brother’s eye dominates the stage with several parts played only on screen via prerecorded footage, including Finbar Lynch as Goldstein, the head of resistance forces.

The overlooking eye feels like a totalitarian version of Alexa, and Justin Nardella’s set and video design works well with Paul Pyant’s dramatic lighting. Winston’s terror of the rats in Room 101 is cleverly depicted in darkness and is more terrifying for that.

Sadly, the love affair between Winston and Julia (Eleanor Wyld) lacks empathy and never feels believable. Ultimately, the production does convey the chilling sense of a State attempting to control reality.

For more details and tickets see link below.

https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/1984/

Four Stars.

Review by Nina Gardner.

Cast

Keith Allen      O’Brien
Mark Quartley Winston
Eleanor Wyld Julia
David Birrell Parsons
Lewis Hart Camera Operator
Paul Sockett Ensemble
Niamh Bennett Ensemble
Appearing in prerecorded image
Oscar Batterham Gladwell
Martin Maquez Medic
Dona Croll Telescreen newscaster
Finbar Lynch Goldstein
Zubin Varla Syme
Asia-Sky Fenty Child
Matthew Horne Ampleforth
Janie Dee Woman
Nicholas Woodeson Big Brother
Director Lindsay Posner
Set,Costume,Video Paul Pyant
Ryan Craig Adaptor