By Barrett White
Author’s note: Due to the current novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, the Alley Theatre has suspended live performances through the end of March 2020, which includes the run of 1984. However, for a limited time, the Alley will be offering a recording of the performance for ticket holders to stream from the comfort of their own homes. Find out more details here. This review is based on the March 11 performance, which occurred before the theatre’s cancellation of live performances.
There is no doubt that the events of George Orwell’s magnum opus 1984 speak volumes in today’s political climate. The trouble is that both sides of the aisle will claim that the other is Big Brother and that they, the people on either side, are poor Winston. It is for this reason that out actor Todd Waite, who plays one of the party members in the Alley Theatre’s stage adaptation, offers a coy societal explanation. “For the LGBTQ community, there is obviously a lot to a play like 1984,” says Waite. “It speaks to a lot of concerns in history, a lot of concerns in present time. I do think that one of the powers of art, as Shakespeare said through Hamlet, is to hold a mirror up to nature and let people react at what they’re seeing and let it nag at their conscious. It’s an important, important book, and an exciting and theatrical play.”
“One of the great things about art is that it works just below the conscious level when it’s at its best,” Waite continues. “And that’s where you’re going to affect people below their overt, stated, entrenched attitudes.”
As to be expected, the stage production runs differently than the book. Adapted by activist and playwright Michael Gene Sullivan and directed by Artistic Director Rob Melrose, the stage play focuses on Winston (Shawn Hamilton), who has been arrested and is being held by ‘The Party.’ The action of Orwell’s novel is recounted by the Party members, who act out the events that landed Winston in their clutches, such as “thought crimes,” his love affair with a coworker, and how the two planned to buck the government by living deliciously. “This is the only revolution we will get,” Julia tells Winston, attempting to dampen his plans of overthrow while inviting him to bed, in the secret room where the actors have pantomimed the idea of Winston and Julia enjoying contraband like coffee and sugar. Alley resident company members Elizabeth Bunch, David Rainey, Jay Sullivan, and Waite round out the cast of Party members, with Chris Hutchison appearing in the role of O’Brien.
The Party members act out the events while reading from Winston’s journal, as though they are showing Winston what he has done as they swat his hand. “I remember when it actually was the year 1984 and there were plenty of news reports about how far off Orwell was in his predictions: the ‘80s world of neon leg-warmers, big hair, ‘greed is good’ capitalism, excess, and individuality seemed far off from the totalitarian dystopia Orwell imagined,” Melrose says in press materials. “Now in 2020, every phone, computer, convenience store, and street corner have a camera. In our homes, Siri and Alexa listen in on our conversations and suggest products and feed us ads based on them. Now, we have the concept of ‘fake news’ and we can never be certain if a story is made-up or not. I would argue that Orwell’s novel has a lot more to say to us now in 2020 than it did in 1984.”
The story begins before you even enter the theatre. Walking up Texas Avenue to the Alley, you are presented with the structure’s concrete facade, its balcony and turrets ever haunting thanks to Ulrich Franzen’s brutalist architecture. While the architecture of the Alley goes without thought during any other production, it stands out as dark, ominous, and guarded for 1984, as if it were built to present this show. Aiding Franzen’s work is a flurry of posters and flyers in the lobby advertising “HATE WEEK” and other Oceania propaganda. CCTV is displayed on the mid-level foyer, where one can spy on the patrons below at the ticket counter. The building itself is method acting.
We could focus on the Alley’s costuming choice to have an interrogator’s appearance mirror that of Steve Jobs’, but we don’t want to dwell. No, that’s a little too close to home, perhaps.
Whether reading the book or enjoying the Alley’s production on stage (or now, live streamed), you may ask, are we rooting for Winston? Are we Winston? “Ah, well that’s the thing, isn’t it?” Waite says. “[Prior to his arrest], Winston was a Party member. To get there, he must have had certain buy-in to the dogma, either of true belief or survival.”
But the unraveling begins with a simple note that reads, “I love you.”
For more information and ticket details, visit alleytheatre.org/covid19/1984-video.
