While the communist era is a thing of the past, myriad aspects of the Orwellian paradigm subtly and not so subtly pervade our times with corporations, advertising, political spin-doctoring, and dreams of fame controlling the actions of many.
In turn, I’ve often wondered what the writer George Orwell, the man responsible for creating the now classic tome “1984” would think of the ways in which his then radical ideas of pervasive governmental surveillance and control have permeated modern society.
This question, along with many others was touched upon “19:84 Up Late” in the recent innovative production of Orwell’s classic 1984 (transposed to reflect the madness of the ever popular current reality TV trend) by Melbourne’s Eagle’s Nest Theatre Company.
Founded in 2006 by Melbourne based James Adler, “Eagles Nest Theatre” is one of Australia’s most prolific theatre companies – producing up to ten new productions each year running the gamut from innovative interpretations of classics such as Romeo & Juliet to original Australian scripts.
This multidisciplinary production was unlike any I had seen before, combining an original music score, physical theatre and film to merge the story of “1984” into the game-show world of “Big Brother Up Late” wherein the audience, at the coaxing of a Gretel Killeen style host, was invited to actively participate in the downfall of the plays main protagonists.
In the central role of the hapless Winston a civil servant assigned the task of perpetuating the regime’s propaganda by falsifying records and political literature, fledgling actor Corey Corbett was impressive – his characterization of a man grown disillusioned with his meagre existence moved to a rebellion that leads to his arrest and torture in turns both moving and chilling.
So too, Claire Healey as Julie, the closet anarchist and object of Winston’s burgeoning love who fans the flames of his rebellion was amazing.
Her skillful characterization of a woman determined to live life by her own rules making her eventual downfall at the hands of Big Brother all the more heartbreaking. Healy is definitely a talent to watch.
This is not to say the production was without its share of problems.
At a running time of two hours plus, the script would have greatly benefited from some judicious editing. In attempting to explore every facet of the play director Adler simply tried to cram too many ideas into one piece – sadly to the productions detriment. . Less would definitely have been more.
A tighter directorial hand would also have improved the production immeasurably – with a cast as large as this production had the actors often stumbled over ones another’s parts in a manner that was both clumsy and distracting. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians came to mind.
So too, the device of the Orwellian Greek chorus breaking into song to further the plotlines was at times jarring – to often the actors sang over one another in grating cacophony.
All in all however, Adler’s production of “1984” was one of the most innovative and fascinating pieces of theatre I have seen this year and I would be interested to see if sometime in the future Adler launches another production of it in a tighter format that makes more skilful use of the fascinating ideas at work in his adaptation.
Visit http://www.eaglesnesttheatre.com/1984%20Uplate%202009.html for more information on Eagle’s Nest Theatre.
