Following four wildly successful U.K. runs, the "hair-raisingly vivid" (New York Magazine) stage adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece, 1984, comes to New York in what The Huffington Post calls "an unforgettable jolt of high-voltage theatre that is literally shocking."
One of the most widely referenced and best known fiction titles of all time, 1984 has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 65 languages. Now, Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan have adapted this iconic novel into "a chilling, ingenious 101 minutes of theatre" (The London Times) starring Tom Sturridge, Olivia Wilde, and Reed Birney.
"Imagine that sound of a roller coaster clanking slowly up to the top of its tallest drop." - T. Michelle Murphy, Metro
"When was the last time you felt scared at the theater? Not disturbed or perturbed or provoked, but scared? 1984 is intense in a way I've never seen on Broadway." Adam Feldman, Time Out
It's a show highly dependent on special effects and stagecraft, with a lot of thunderous noise and blinding flashes of light when bad stuff comes to pass, and the most striking bit of production takes us entirely offstage: When Winston and his fellow rebel Julia have their clandestine meetups in the back room of a dusty London shop, we see the scenes play out on an enormous video screen above the main set. It's not clear, until fairly late in the play, whether those slightly grainy scenes are being played live or were pre-taped. That's the point: We're meant to consider the unreliability of images and their sources, and the ubiquity of cameras recording our every move. The big video monitor is of wide proportions, similar to those of the novel's telescreens. And though it's a little off-putting to see perhaps 20 percent of a play mediated on a big TV, it's a legitimate idea for theater-making, inventively and thoughtfully deployed.
When was the last time you felt scared at the theater? Not disturbed or perturbed or provoked, but scared? The harrowing climactic torture scene of 1984, adapted from George Orwell's novel by directors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, is intense in a way I've never seen on Broadway: It's gut-churning. Children under 13 have been barred from attending it; even adults may shake in their seats, or at least avert their eyes. This gripping show rewards watching, though, and not just in that visit to Room 101 at the grotesquely named Ministry of Love. Orwell's vision of a surveillance state awash in groupthink and propaganda was published in 1949 and set in 1984, but it remains uncannily suggestive of the present and the future.
2016 | West End |
West End Return Engagement West End |
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play | Natasha Chivers |
2018 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Play | Tim Gibbons |
2018 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Projection Design | Tim Reid |
2018 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Tom Gibbons |
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