The production will now run at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre until 23 August 2014 (previously 19th July 2013), prior to a second UK tour in the autumn, as previously announced. Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 opened in the West End on 28 April, transferring directly from the Almeida Theatre.
1984 is written and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan, set and costume designed by Chloe Lamford, with lighting designed by Natasha Chivers, sound designed by Tom Gibbons and video designed by Tim Reid. Originally produced by Headlong and Nottingham Playhouse, 1984 had its world premiere at Nottingham Playhouse in September and went on to enjoy a hugely successful UK tour and a 7-week run at the Almeida Theatre.
George Orwell’s 1984, published in 1949, is one of the most influential novels in recent history, with its chilling depiction of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind-control. Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell’s fiction is often said to be our reality.
Filtering the spirit and the ambition of the novel through the lens of contemporary culture, this radical new staging explores surveillance culture, identity and how thinking you can fly might actually be the first step to flying.
