George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, about a totalitarian state, was written 75 years ago and it’s depressing and scary that most of its futuristic visions have come true.
As we enter the auditorium at Brighton’s Theatre Royal for Ryan Craig’s stage adaptation we are scanned by a camera in the huge screen centre stage – our every movement and gesture broadcast to everyone else in the theatre.
This is a world where comrades are scrutinised 24/7 by cameras; where the rigid rule of law is controlled by the Party elites and the thought police and where fake news is the order of the day.
Mild-mannered Winston Smith (Mark Quartley) is a diligent re-writer of history at the Ministry of Truth. He comes under the apparently benign patronage of Party chief O’Brien (Keith Allen), but of course it’s all a trap to catch Smith and secret girlfriend Julia (Eleanor Wyld).
Under Julia’s feisty and sexually provocative influence, the couple become rebels, convinced that O’Brien is actually working for the opposition underground. Of course, he isn’t and Act One ends with their capture.
Winston has a next door neighbour Parsons (David Birrell), who apparently has a precocious young daughter who gleefully got a man arrested for his shiny shoes – it’s one of many horrifically believable images.
But as Act Two opens, we are in a place where O’Bren tellingly had said he and Smith would meet “a place where there is no darkness,” which turns out to be a windowless cell with no clock and constant piercing electric light.
And now Keith Allen starts to interest us – still at times matter-of-fact, and casually quietly spoken, he turns into the arch vindictive torturer he has always been – it’s a marvellous acting arc that Allen manages effortlessly and scarily.
But for me the show stopping performance here is that of the imprisoned neighbour Parsons. Bloodied, beaten, sinking in and out of delusion, Birrell gives an acting masterclass of the destruction and degradation of a now doubly incontinent husk of the man he was – and all caused by his informant daughter – it’s chilling.
Quartley rapidly becomes a figure of pathos and his torture scene is graphically painful to watch- especially since it’s shown live in huge close-up on the projection screen that dominates the set.
And what of the infamous Room 101, where we are exposed to that which we fear most – in Smith’s case predatory rats? Well the whole scene is played in blackout, with Allen’s narration of events booming out at us. It’s a clever device and we individually make it as horrific as we want it to be.
In these days of fake news, propaganda, and virally vicious social media, there are many incidents in Trump land, Russia, China, North Korea, and the Middle East for us to be reminded of. That’s the power of Orwell’s 75-year-old masterpiece which on stage here is directed masterfully by Lindsay Posner, and brought to gruesome life by Justin Nardella’s set and video designs. And don’t forget as you go home, Big Brother is still watching you.
1984 is at Theatre Royal Brighton until Saturday, 2 November – tickets atgtickets.com
All photos by Simon Annand