THIS WEEK sees the U.S. debut of the acclaimed new British production of ‘1984’ at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Brought to these shores by the London-based Headlong Theatre company, the play updates George Orwell’s Cold War dystopian classic into a chilling exploration of the modern surveillance state and the War on Terror. Written and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, this new production posits the view that an unholy alliance of internet technology and the spectre of radical Islam have created a new Orwellian world every bit as bad as that imagined by Orwell back in the 1940s.
The themes of a surveillance state using a new language – Newspeak –to convey concepts such as ‘doublethink’ and ‘thought crime’ are amped up using innovative new stage techniques and technologies to engage – and often unnerve – the audience. Indeed during the play’s London run it was not unusual for furious audience members to get up and leave the theater, so discomfited we they by what they were witnessing.
“We’ve had people shouting, leaving and getting up,” says Matthew Spencer, who plays Winston Smith. “We get different reactions in different areas.”
The play is set in Airstrip One (the former Great Britain), now part of the mighty empire of Oceania and ruled by the cult figure of Big Brother. Oceania is perpetually at war, sometimes against and sometimes in concert with, the globe’s two other governing powers and everything is run by the Inner Party, which portrays itself as a benign force for freedom and progress and protection but is, of course, nothing more than a repressive dictatorship.
The doomed protagonist Winston Smith is a lowly party apparatchik in the Ministry of Truth whose job is to rewrite history to reflect today’s party line, which could, of course, change tomorrow. Disillusioned and scared, Smith secretly hates Big Brother and daydreams about rebellion. And as his disaffection comes to the notice of the party, there is a palpable sense of a closing in, of a building dread.
The play’s themes are ripe for re-examination given the changes in our lives since the coming of the Internet and the events of September 11, 2001. As co-writer Duncan Macmillan said recently: “How do we know what is real? How do we trust our own thoughts? When Google filters results depending on what we’ve searched for before and disseminates our metadata. When corporations manipulate how you vote, how you think and what you buy.
“The play is in doublethink,” says Macmillan, invoking the Newspeak word for people’s capacity to accept contradictory notions as true. “You follow a really coherent story, but almost like a magician’s trick, you may have seen a very different story than the person you came along with.”
Macmillan says there are few places in our culture where we can effectively explore that kind of complexity. The stage is one. If the play can offer anything to its audience, he says, it’s a space without noise in a world otherwise dominated by mind-numbingly loud and inflammatory discourse.
The Times of London said of the show: “A chilling, ingenious 101 minutes. I urge you to see this stunning show,” while the Independent gushed: “A work of extraordinary quality and intensity”.
Due to the graphic nature of 1984, this play is NOT recommended for children under the age of 14
‘1984’
Where: The Eli & Edythe Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica
When: Previews begin Jan. 8, opening night Jan. 13, ends Feb. 6
Tickets: $30-$100
Info: (310) 434-3200, www.thebroadstage.com
Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes (no intermission)
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