Nineteen Eighty Four

Adapted by Robert Icke & Duncan Macmillan
Directed by David Stacey

‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever.’

Winston Smith is a beige bureaucrat at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to make up lies all day, rewriting history and erasing from the records anyone who has fallen out of favour with the State. Secretly, however, Winston rebels. First by starting a diary, and then by falling in love.

We visit Orwell’s dark, dystopian world of thought criminals, newspeak and doublethink through the musings of a book group as they debate the merits of Winston’s diary. Is the thing that’s in Room 101 really the worst thing in the world? Is the book group even real? Big Brother is watching in this disturbing vision of fiction/reality and future/present. Are you ready to be re-educated?

For ages 15yrs+
Contains strong language and some upsetting scenes

Quotes from past productions:
“Expertly done and it suited the Studio Theatre so well.” (The Shape of Things, February 2025)
“Thought provoking and relevant.” (The Ballad of Maria Marten, March 2024)