1984 is a
performance based on the novel written by George Orwell,
The Oceania province of Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain)
is a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public
mind control, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English
Socialism under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite that
persecutes all individualism and independent thinking as thought crimes. Their
tyranny is headed by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an
intense cult of personality, but who may not even exist. Big Brother and the
Party justify their rule in the name of a supposed greater good. The
protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party who
works for the Ministry of Truth, which is responsible for propaganda and
historical revisionism. His job is to re-write past newspaper articles so that
the historical record always supports the current party line. Smith is a
diligent and skilful worker, but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of
rebellion against Big Brother.
The main set that appeared to be a permanent fixture was what seemed like an office room or a room within a learning environment or a museum. The play opened with a voice over and a single character in focus sitting at the main table on the stage, it then developed to show a group sitting at the table talking about the diary that the previous character was writing in.
This to me seemed an interesting opening because from what I could gather after the began to interact was that this was years after 1984 and they were looking back at the diary and who may have written it and the 'world' as it was then. It allowed the audience to participate in this and discover the character for themselves.
In the first part of the play develops into a repetition of flashbacks to that group and the main character because he is discovering who he is and what part he plays within his world.
I found the character very interesting and found that the play is very clever and allowing the audience to discover along with that character, there is confusion at the beginning with trying to interpret where the character belongs and how the situations surrounding him connect with him and the world, but as the play goes on I found it easier to interpret and understand where he was and what is happening around him. I thought it was very clever some of the concepts that they used within the performances for example the use of the 'private room' for the main character and love interest to escape to away from big brother. This was set up so that there were no cameras and they weren't being watched however for the audience to see what happens in the room is as broadcast onto a large section of screens at the back of the stage. I thought this was clever because they weren't suppose to be being watched and yet the audience was protruding on their privacy.
The filming of the private room was cleverly done and was a very good addition into the live action of the rest of the play, the set itself became slowly destroyed and changed by the main characters and I felt this was a good representation of the downfall that is trying to be brought onto the society by big brother. The change in set is also very clever and it makes the character and the audience question relationships formed and the connection between him and the society.
I enjoyed the development of the play and felt that there was an element of understanding that would come from reading the book and would allow me to understand the themes better and how things connect. I feel that the play is very cleverly put together and the characters actions and speech is well connected to the main base of the novel/play allowing you to walk away and still be questioning motives and actions.
No comments:
Post a Comment