Play Review: 1984

When a friend and I decided to buy tickets to see 1984 at the Playhouse Theatre in London, I was excited, but skeptical. After having been thoroughly impressed by Orwell's novel earlier in the year, and thoroughly unimpressed by the 1956 film adaptation shortly afterwards, naturally I was afraid that the play would not be able to do it justice. I was happily proven wrong.

While I would have a hard time saying the play was on an exact par with the novel, it was certainly able to capture much of what made Orwell's original work so entrancing. The actors, bolstered all around them by the plays's costumes, sets and special effects, were able to convey and instill the powerful sensations from what is a profoundly emotional story. Highlights included the momentous shock which Winston feels when he receives his first note from Julia, or the sensation of absolute terror he experiences during his initial torture and later, in Room 101. It should come as no surprise then that, much like the novel, the play was also able to keep its audience engaged throughout its entire duration; no mean feat considering it lasted over an hour and a half with  no interval. The trailer below will give you a good taste of all the above:

Despite facing the relative time constraints encountered by all theatrical adaptations of novels, the play was nonetheless also able to develop 1984's key themes to provide a truly stimulating intellectual experience. While the classic topics of sanity and surveillance were well developed by the play, it was its treatment of memory as a theme which completely enveloped my mind. The dialogue and scene changes really helped to create a distorted sense of recollection which added layers to the characters' musings over the age-old but perpetually relevant question, "Can we truly know anything?"

My friend and I left the Playhouse Theatre mentally exhausted in the best possible way, barely able to discuss what we had just seen as we attempted to finish processing it all. I'm quite frankly stunned that I even had it in me to write this review so soon after seeing the play. Perhaps Winston's exploration of the fleeting nature and consequent significance of memory compelled me to just sit down and write it before it was too late.

It's quite apt that the topic of memory should be so significant to 1984 and my experience of the story's theatrical adaptation. After a brief tube ride home, during which I collected my thoughts and listened to Big Brother over the PA system, I realised I had enjoyed the play so much precisely because of the way it interacted with my memory of the original novel. This is not to say that if you have not read Orwell's work you won't follow the plot or enjoy the play overall, but I would argue that you won't enjoy it as much as if you had read it beforehand. The play was able to bring the story of 1984 to life for me, but largely because Orwell had already made the story so vivid in my mind to begin with.