Review: 1984, Sydney Theatre Company

28 June, Roslyn Packer Theatre

A touring production of the Alemeida company's critically acclaimed version did little to nothing for me. I'm going to be in the minority here but I found this in turn uninteresting and frustrating.

There was famously a run on hard copies of 1984 in the USA following last year's election results, and I thought this production came along at a timely moment. But the things which make Orwell's 1984 more relevant than ever - ideas about doublethink, and propaganda, and the numbed and indifferent masses - are the parts which are given the shortest shrift in this play.

I found the first half boring, and the choices quite boring - ah so we're surveilling Winston and Julia, just like Big Brother, gosh maybe we ARE Big Brother. Cool cool cool but I didn't come to the theatre to watch screens. I think the decision to show the surveillance from the start, rather than reveal it as in the book, also takes away the tension and the surprise of that plot point.

The acting and staging just felt super flat overall, and the second half of the play is basically just torture? Very effective use of lights and sound to disturb and disrupt, kudos to the production team. But the whole thing is so clumsily done. Like being struck with a blunt instrument.

I find the book itself to be flat in affect, more about the ideas than the narrative. If you are going to translate that to theatre then you need to, I dunno, discuss and present those ideas in an interesting way maybe? Or bring some affect? This production is about creating effect, but without lasting impact. At least that's how it felt to me.

 

Links:
Kevin Jackson
The Guardian
SMH - how intense is it really?

 

Sydney Theatre Company in association with State Theatre Company South Australia and by arrangement with GWB Entertainment and Ambassador Theatre Group presents the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre production

1984
By George Orwell
A new adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan

Directors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan
Associate Director (Australia) Corey McMahon
Designer Chloe Lamford
Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer Tom Gibbons
Video Designer Tim Reid

With
Molly Barwick, Paul Blackwell, Tom Conroy, Terence Crawford, Coco Jack Gillies, Ursula Mills, Renato Musolino, Guy O’Grady, Yalin Ozucelik, Fiona Press