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Double Plus Good adaptation of Orwell’s dystopian masterpieceSummary
Rating
Excellent
The state of Oceania has a stirring National Anthem, its tune borrowed from Doris Day’s hit Que Sera Sera. The emotive lyrics describe how the beneficent regime takes care of its citizens’ bodily and spiritual needs, and the chorus goes:
Oceania!
The sky and the silver sea!
I’d lay down my life for thee,
Oceania…
We first hear this ditty – and are encouraged to sing along – at the beginning of this immersive take on George Orwell’s 1984 while we’re gathered for Victory Gin & Tonics in the high-ceilinged rear chamber of Hackney Town Hall. A singer and pianist serenade us with tracks including My Baby Just Cares for Me. Then we’re commanded by boiler-suited officials to follow them to the Council Chamber at the heart of the building.
The audience are candidates to join Oceania’s Ministry of Truth. This is one of the key institutions of governance in a war-ravaged world which benevolent entity Big Brother controls on behalf of Oceania’s citizens, keeping society functioning – so long as we behave, believe and think exactly as instructed.
We take a written test, which is short but deliberately bewildering. It’s a cunning way of destabilising our grasp of logic before Party Official O’Brien (a chilling turn from Jude Awuwudike) outlines the business of the Ministry of Truth. It’s the Ministry’s job to alter records to ensure they reflect the current truth, from the identity of people who have/haven’t served Big Brother well, to who Oceania is at war with. That would be Eastasia, and woe betide the citizen who “remembers” this conflict is only four years old – the Ministry can prove Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
This concept is key to understanding the terrifying conditions under which Oceania’s people subsist. We’re introduced to Winston Smith (Declan Rogers), an MOT worker responsible for administrating these corrections and refinements of history. But far from being a model citizen, we’re about to discover that Winston is longing to break ranks and fight the system…
Winston’s rebellion begins when Julia (Kit Reeve) scandalously slips him a note reading simply “I love you”. This unleashes a covert affair and snatched moments of relief from the unrelenting drudgery of daily life. Julia is adept at securing black market supplies such as real coffee, sugar and bread, and for a while they achieve a furtive kind of happiness in a squalid rented room.
It’s an effective portrait of love surviving under oppression, even if Winston and Julia aren’t the best-matched pair. Winston longs for political change while Julia is all about living sensually in the now. “You’re only a rebel from the waist down” reprimands Winston, but they make it work because it’s all they have.
But Big Brother has been watching from day one. When their precarious affair is violently interrupted, it’s a shocking moment that you instinctively know signals a tragic denouement. Winston is whisked away from Julia and departs in a glass lift – an ingenious use of the venue’s architecture.
In the legendary Room 101 Winston is tortured by O’Brien until he literally isn’t sure if 2+2=4. But the worst is yet to come, as Winston is confronted by his most-feared nightmare and his spirit is utterly broken. It’s a bruising and genuinely upsetting end to the show.
This is an exceptionally skillful adaptation of a complex novel, well-served by a brilliant cast, and just immersive enough to justify that description without relocating the audience every five minutes. It’s an appropriately downbeat treatment of the text, but at least it sends you on your way with a song in your ears. Altogether now:
Oceania!
The sky and the silver sea!
I’d lay down my life for thee,
Oceania…
Based on the novel by: George Orwell
Directed by: Richard Hahlo and Jem Wall
Produced by: Madeleine Wilson, Pure Expression
Sound Design by: Thor McIntyre-Burnie
Lighting Design by: Jonathan Simpson
Set Design by: Jeroen van Dooren
1984 plays at Hackney Town Hall until 17 December. Further information and bookings can be found here.
