4th of April, 1984 is a date of some moment in literary history. First of all it was the day on which I was born, but second (and perhaps rather more importantly), it was the date on which Winston Smith begins his diary in George Orwell's imperious vision of the future of his world, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Despite most Orwell fans not holding it as their favourite even among his books, 1984, first published in 1949, has acheived a stature in twentieth century English language literature to rank alongside any other work of the period you could care to name, and is surpassed as a satirical warning-to-the-future perhaps only by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Written as the author was on his deathbed, it's flawed in places and the work of a dying genius, but whilst he may have overdone the terror and paranoia a touch, Orwell has succesfully managed to prophecy the transatlantic alliance between the UK and USA, satirise the secrecy and propaganda within government and international big business, and even, it would seem, give rise to reality TV - the concept and title of Channel 4's Big Brother being lifted wholesale from the novel - all in one slim work of fiction. And in the year in which he would be celebrating his hundredth birthday, the Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre are in the New Vic Studio putting his work onto the stage. 

Winston Smith, the diary-writer mentioned above, craves freedom more than anything. In a world ruled by a shadowy and far-away figure known only as Big Brother, who is all seeing and all knowing though medium of two-way telescreens placed all over his realm. The Ministries of Truth, Peace, Plenty and Love tower over a London skyline battered by bombs from a war that never ends, and the very history of the world is written and re-written so often by the Party that no-one can be entirely sure what is fact and fiction - Winston is one of the few to care. In such a world, free thought is a crime punishable by extermination. The day Winston decides to write a diary, his life is altered for good. Around the same time he comes into (very secretive) contact with Julia, a young woman who hates the party every bit as much as he himself, and they become lovers. Their pleasure, however, is short-lived, and it's not wrong before a couple of unwise moves bring them to first-hand experience of the ruling Party's techniques for dealing with subversives....

The stage is central in the studio, seats to each side and up on the balcony. At each end is a a raised section, there to create levels and add impact to some scenes as much as anything else, and that's it, no scenery or stage props are needed. It's sparsely lit most of the time, which adds nicely to the atmosphere created in the book. What's not so great is that the directors have chosen to play it as an ensemble, with five actors for Winston and five for Julia, with the cast as a whole acting as a chorus and, during the interrogation scenes of the second act, everyone playing Winston and Julia's part. This makes the stage seem overcrowded at moments which, in the book, are deliberately very private and intimate. Also, when combined with pumping music lifted straight from a certain C4 show, it somewhat detracts from the stark bleakness of Orwell's future vision of his city, replacing it with an area packed with energy and life. At times it also does a considerable job of confusing matters for anyone turning up to watch having not, as I have, read the book two or three times. The lighting isn't always quite right either. In the book, Room 101 (there we are, another TV influence), where a prisoner's worst nightmares are realised unless they allow their mind to be re-formed, is stark, bare, and filled with blinding white light at all sides - the play itself uses Orwell's quote "the place where there is no darkness" more times than I counted - and yet, when the interrogation scenes are reached, more than half the stage is in darkness, there being just enough light to see that it's not sparse and empty at all, but - again - filled by the cast between the squares of light. The interrogation itself, I felt, was not really concentrated enough on what was going on in Winston's head, and this detracts from the power of the ending. It's an ending that's hard-hitting however it's viewed, and that every time the reader (or in this case, spectator) wants to happen differently to how it does, but the resignation and despair at Winston's utter defeat that are so apparent in the book become, in this production, something almost more akin to sorrow that the lovers could not remain together.

All this said, the cast can't really be faulted, the kids are, with few exceptions, marvellous. All carry bags of energy and enthusiasm onto the stage, ensuring that when the ensemble does work - and yes, it does have its moments - it's superb. For the most part, as well, the leads can act very well for their ages, Ben Spencer's Parsons and Will Sanderson Thwaite's O'Brien being my personal favourites. The heat in the room during the performance after a very warm day may have been sufficient torture to use in Room 101 itself, but the cast didn't let it detract from their performance.

And so we have it, a hugely powerful novel rendered into an energetic and entertaining, yet somehow not quite all there, performance on stage. It's not bad, but it didn't leave me feeling deeply impressed or awe-struck either, and some of the points made were a little dubious. These include references to the Atkins diet and text messaging which are, according to these directors, of great significance as "those aspects of twenty-first century life that most struck a chord with Orwell's vision". I myself would have thought that, say, the recent controversy surrounding a western government's use of spin to make a case for war against a far off tyrant is somewhat closer to the point Orwell was trying to make, but then maybe that's just me...

Overall, three stars. I wasn't inspired by the points emphasised, nor by the way the characters were portrayed, but the stage set was perfect for the ocassion and, for all my harshness about other parts of the production, the cast are as good as - in fact, far better than anyone has a right to expect from their age and experience. Perhaps football pundit Alan Hansen was right, though, you can't win everything with kids.

The Tick List:

Set 

 Lighting


Story


Interpretation


Costumes


Cast


Overall

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