image: Manuel Harlan
What makes 1984 a great choice for the Playhouse's Conspiracy Season?
Duncan: The show is a co-production with Nottingham Playhouse and had its world premiere there in September 2013 before embarking on its first UK tour. 1984 was made with Nottingham Playhouse very much in our minds and we had a great response to the play there, so we're very happy to have it return as part of this season.
How are the themes relevant to the 21st century?
Rob: There's never been a time when Orwell's book wasn't culturally relevant. But it does feel particularly pertinent to our times with its interrogation of austerity politics, perpetual war, a culture of surveillance, terrorism, torture, the manipulation of the individual by the group, media as an echo-chamber of anger and hatred, and the ways in which our own thoughts can be manipulated. There are many big, complex ideas in the book so it's no surprise that terms like Big Brother and Room 101 have become embedded in our culture and that the word 'Orwellian' is used by people of all political persuasions on a daily basis.
How have you updated Nineteen Eighty-Four for modern audiences?
Duncan: We haven’t, really. The book speaks for itself – like any great work of literature, every age sees itself reflected. There are a couple of idiomatic forties speech quirks that we’ve neutralised – things that don’t mean now what they meant then – but for the vast majority of the time our attempt was not to update, but to try and capture the scale and terror of the novel in a theatrical form.
Can you explain your process behind adapting Nineteen Eighty-Four for the stage...
Duncan: Though it's celebrated for many things, the novel doesn't get the recognition it deserves for its formal innovations. Our challenge was to find a theatrical equivalent for the formal complexities of the book. A particular challenge was that the book has a solitary footnote and an appendix. This tells the reader that the book Orwell has written is presented not as a work of fiction, but as an account of some kind, and what's more, an account that has been put through an editing process so is unreliable.
Throughout the book we learn not to trust the written word – indeed, Winston's job is to rewrite facts in the Ministry of Truth. The appendix contradicts much of what the rest of the story asserts, and implies that it was written long after the 'account' we've just read. The last word of the book is ‘2050’, and even this date seems to be long in the past. The reader's relationship to the text keeps changing and is never passive. In one remarkable moment, Winston reads another book – a political text apparently written by the leader of the rebellious Brotherhood, Emmanuel Goldstein. Several pages of the book appear in the text, meaning that, as Winston reads the words, our eyes move across the page with his, we commit the same treacherous thoughtcrime as he does. The complexity of the arguments in the book are contained within its innovative form.
What have been both the rewards and challenges of adapting the novel?
Rob: Like anything really difficult, the challenges are the rewards, ultimately. It took a lot of time and a lot of drafts to get anywhere near it, but it’s satisfying to feel it now have its effect on the audience.
1984, Nottingham Playhouse, Wednesday 9 - Saturday 26 September 2015, £9.50-£28.50.
Nottingham Playhouse website
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