CityLife

To the future or to the past, to a time when all adaptation for the stage is rightwise, I send you a review; a review in fact of the Royal Exchange’s latest production ‘1984’ - from the perspective of the proles in the stalls.<br /> <br /> Adaptation is a difficult art, especially when attempted with a much loved classic such as George Orwell’s disturbing dystopian novel 1984. The book dealt brilliantly not only with the force of ideas, but also the power and beauty of the written word and there are those, myself included, who approached this performance with some trepidation, fearing that much we loved must inevitably be lost in translation to the stage. It wasn’t. In fact I can honestly say that this is the most hopeless portrayal of Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare you could hope to encounter and as magnificent a production as I have encountered since the Pillowman at the Lowry nearly five years ago. Hopeless and magnificent? How can such blatant doublethink be justified you may ask? Well for those familiar with the story will understand why the word ‘hopeless’ is just about the highest compliment that can be paid to any adaptation of 1984. Matthew Dunster who adapted and directed this terrifyingly moving piece had brought to life all of the essential elements of Orwell’s disturbing story of love and power in a world where no one escapes the absolute authority of the state. The work rang with a discipline redolent of the inner party, with every cue, scene change, effect and item of lovingly executed choreography, seamlessly delivered and with such professionalism that you wonder if he sent random members of the cast to ROOM 101 to sharpen up the others. Indeed it was remarkable feature that the play was often enhanced by of all things the shadowy scene changes (that on such a 360 stage must always be done in view of the audience) with party members lifting benches and moving desks by quarter light with a crisp military precision contrasted with gently chaotic proles romancing a piano onto the stage, genially singing as they came and went. Everything possible was made of the 360 stage and to those party members who toiled to deliver costume, set, sound and lighting helping so effectively to cast the spell that is the heart of any great stage production - doubleplusgood indeed, you have more than earned an increased ration of Victory gin. And the cast? Well, only the Thought Police can truly know how many of the audience were already familiar with the story of 1984, but I suspect few came without heavy preconceptions. Yet so adroit were they in the application of their craft that five minutes into the play the words ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ weren’t even a memory. As an ensemble they were quite simply superb with not a duff note sounded by any of them. Caroline Bartleet brought such pathos to the role of Julia and gave her, if it isn’t a contradiction given the fervent affair she initiates, a passionate innocence that instils in one a mad desire for Matthew Dunster to have taken the spirit of the Ministry of Truth to heart and changed history. In Bartleet, Julia was beautiful, vital, charming and graceful coming to life perhaps even more than in the hands of Orwell. I read in my programme that this actress has only just graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in which case her performance is all the more remarkable. Elsewhere it was the virtues of versatility that were rendered by a splendid Paul Moriarty in his dual role as an elderly forgetful prole and a defy erudite Emmanuel Goldstein, whose addition as a narrative character in his own right was a wholly convincing innovation and if anything I would have welcomed more of this, doubtless just an ‘opeless fancy. Matthew Flynn in his role as the inner party member O’Brien made sure that we took no such fancy to his character. O’Brien does not come into his own until the second half with his appearances prior to that being mainly portents of the ugliness to come and here the choices made by director and actor were quite inspired. O’Brien, like the movement he serves, is insane but in the novel until the final climactic interrogation scenes certain aspects of his character remain open to interpretation. Playing the role of O’Brien for the 1980’s film adaptation, Richard Burton gave the inner party man a somewhat detached and intellectual quality. Big shoes those, but Flynn slipped them on nicely and whilst his O’Brien retained the intellectual gifts that Orwell had intended he was also the epitome of a barley repressed psychotic monster. In his hands O’Brien is an ugly figure, relentless and unredeemed by thought or deed and of course in many ways the antithesis of the hero of the piece, Winston Smith. Winston, played so vividly by Jonathan McGuinness, is the focus of all our hopes as an audience. His journey is the centre of the story and his fate demands a terrifyingly physical performance from McGuinness and boy does he deliver. So convincing is his portrayal of pain, so upsetting his depiction of Winston’s utter degradation that some in the audience could not take it and had to leave. McGuinness does a mans job of playing the last man in Europe and from beginning to end you watch in fascination as he takes you though the drab terror filled misery of life under Big Brother; the exquisite tenderness of the love he shares with Julia; and the destruction of a human at the hands of monsters. The blood soaked, spittle flecked screaming madness of his arrest, interrogation and decent into ROOM 101 left the audience tense, shocked and utterly enthralled. What’s that? What’s in ROOM 101 you ask? You know what’s in ROOM 101 ... everybody knows what’s in ROOM 101.<br />

I have got to admit I was slightly sceptical about how George Orwell’s classic novel about the horrors of totalitarianism and state control could be successfully adapted for the stage. Matthew Dunster has completely dismissed the sceptic in me, and held the Royal Exchange audience both spellbound and terrified in equal measure with his electrifying new adaptation.<br /> <br /> Jonathan McGuinness is nothing short of fantastic as the Ministry of Truth worker Winston Smith who tries to strike out for truth and love against The Party, and its leader Big Brother. The concepts first introduced by Orwell when the novel was first published in 1949 are so familiar to us now that it is easy to forget that they were just figments of his brilliant imagination – Big Brother; Room 101; and the Thought Police to name but a few. McGuinness is totally believable as the brave and rebellious Winston. He and his new found lover Julia (also very convincingly played by Caroline Bartleet), strike out for truth; justice; and love against the terrifying regime. And we all know what happens to those who challenge the ruling orthodoxy. The whole cast gives a brilliant display of brainwashing, and the terrifying attempt to control the thoughts and lives of ordinary people, with the recent/current events in Iraq and Afghanistan making Orwell’s razor sharp political observations as relevant now as they were in the post war era. And what torture scenes they are. It is difficult to keep watching – so convincing are they, and is McGuinness in particular. Special mention must also be given to Paul Moriarty, whose long and eloquent speech as the subversive dissident Emmanuel Goldstein is extremely accomplished with not a word out of place. The staging is astonishingly good – with so many changes of scene, set, and mood to convey. And the Royal Exchange does it with style. This is the best production technically that I have seen there since Henry V in 2007. The usual theatre in the round is transformed into a linear set, which brilliantly changes into the terrifying torture scene of the Ministry of Love and Room 101. Music and lighting are also used to terrific effect. I seriously cannot praise this production too highly – go and see this play, but prepare for a very uncomfortable ride.<br />