1984 REVIEW On the 17th October, I went to see Headlong’s production of 1984 at Warwick Arts Centre. It was quite an experience. The aim of the company was to explore how relevant the themes and issues revealed in Orwell’s original story are to us today, and this was unsettlingly present throughout the performance. It all began in the office of the main character, Winston, and the mood of the fictional world was perfectly captured in the set design. Shelves packed full of grey, blank-labelled boxes were surrounded by wooden panels and doors marked with brass numbers; a dimly lit corridor could be seen through a row of greasy windows; the wooden nondescript furniture blended into the background; and a telescreen was ever-present in the corner of the room. Above all of this, there were images projected onto a sloped wall. Sometimes the projection added a dingy tiled ceiling to the set design (at one point we were shown the screen of Winston’s computer as he vaporised a man from existence) and various videos were played throughout showing action that was taking place offstage. Midway through the production, when Winston and Julia were captured by the Thought Police, the entire set was pulled apart and removed from the stage in various directions while loud sirens sounded and searchlights shone around the darkened space. This was one of the more impressive scene changes that I’ve seen, to say the least. We were then subjected to Winston being gruesomely tortured in a long, intense scene, where the character become progressively covered in blood in between several suspense-filled blackouts. Those images are set to stay in my mind for a very long time, I feel, particularly as Winston looked out at the audience and asked how we could simply sit and watch what was happening. A box ‘filled with rats’ was then brought onto the stage as it became clear that Winston was in Room 101, and it was held in front of his face until he screamed ‘Do it to Julia!’ The performance then came to a close, where we were left with the chilling possibility that the party could still be controlling the world, despite seeming to have been brought down. Headlong’s 1984 was a production of very high quality in all aspects: acting, set design, and overall direction. I believe that the company succeeding in emphasizing the relevance of the original themes to today’s society, where the surveillance and interception of digital communications seems to be constantly in the headlines, and social media sites are used by a large proportion of the population. Who can access your personal information? How secure are your credit card details and passwords? These ideas definitely provide some food for thought. The tour is set to continue until March 2014 - go and see it! Ella Hawkins, 2nd Year
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 01:11:24 +0000
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