The magnitude of the task that the Headlong Theatre set itself was well cut out when they took on George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984 on stage at The Playhouse Theatre. Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s reimagining of the heralded novel has set the bar extremely high in terms of my personal return to watching live theatre. Without a doubt they managed to stay true to the original novel without moving into tedium, but also allow themselves the spin that fans of the novel will appreciate as well as newcomers to the story.
We begin our 2015 version of 1984 in a reading group that seems to have intertwined with the psyche of our protagonist Winston. At first I was a little befuddled, questioning whether I remembered my favourite novel with complete accuracy. After a short while I accepted that this was not simply a clone of Winston’s tale, but a newer rendition embedded in a reality that has seen the fall of Big Brother and ‘The Party’. Obviously any divergence from the original story to true Orwellian addicts could come across as offensive, but as one of the more vocal fans of this particular work I can happily say that this was not the case.
In order to truly achieve a hellish vision of the past, and what seems to be our ever so raptly encroaching future, the visual and audio aspects of the play had to be very specific, and to my amazement they were terrifyingly apt. Blazing light accompanying shrieking pitches were used in the most punishing way to the audience, engaging us within Winston’s fear but also intensifying the overarching situation that he was facing; the possible capture of his mind at the mercy of Big Brother was reflected in our own mercy to the audio engineers. The audio was almost foreboding Winston’s eventual torture with the audiences own personal torture, the high pitched ringing matching that of severe tinnitus, would be enough to drive even the most solid audience members to the edge of sanity.
Visually the performance was relentless as well. One particular scene is repeated multiple times with fewer characters in each permutation, but retaining the movements of a full stage. This gave an unnerving visual performance as well as illustrating how well versed the actors are. The more gruesome scenes towards the conclusion of the play were also brilliantly conceived by our directors as they allowed severely brutal images with the highest realism, although I was disappointed in the audiences reactions, most of the adults giggling like nervous teenagers at the violence was frustrating when it was so well performed.
Furthermore, the visual aspects of the play regarding what I’ll call the “off-stage” scenes were brilliant. The rear of the stage had a projection of the rented room which our protagonists spend a great deal of the performance in. These projections were of the two actors in the room as scenes were acted out rather than an overlay simply projected onto the wall. The audience looking in on the actions highlighted how much of an escape this sanctuary is for the characters, the voyeuristic stance shared by the audience helped to illustrate the removal this tiny room allowed from ‘The Party’ and the all seeing eye of Big Brother. The use of projection also allowed for the claustrophobic existence that the characters held to be shown via the visual appendage of camera which I feel is rarely used with the stage, and may have caused issue for some, but was worked in well.
The conclusion of the play was the only area that I found lacking, the diversion from the novel’s ending was well performed and integrated very well, but for me the ending of the novel is so disturbingly perfect that I was disappointed to have seen it altered from its original form.
But with the magnitude of the task that is bringing such a magnanimous novel into the 21st century, I think it was achieved extremely well, and without a doubt will have a third run and will hopefully be the starting point of a positive personal relationship with the stage.
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