Directed by Tim Robbins, cast of 6 plays multiple roles
by Ivan M. Lincoln
Deseret Morning News, 17 October 2006
"1984," THE ACTORS' GANG, Kingsbury Hall, Friday
This new touring stage adaptation of George Orwell's landmark novel 1984 — partly commissioned by Kingsbury Hall for the Los Angeles-based Actors' Gang — is definitely not comfort-zone theater.
Both provocative and thought-provoking, the play takes audiences into a terrifying world where a dictatorial government has total control over the masses.
Orwell's novel was adapted for the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan. While retaining Orwell's title and his original prophetic concepts — set in the fictional mega-nation of Oceania — the precise locale and period of the drama could be anywhere and anytime as the political system runs amok.
Directed by Oscar-winning actor/filmmaker Tim Robbins (who also co-founded the Actors' Gang), a small cast of six gifted actors, most playing multiple roles, delivers a production that is riveting and frightening.
Cameron Dye plays Winston, a government employee whose job is to pore over old news stories, removing historical elements that run counter to the regime of the all-powerful Big Brother (yes, he is "watching you").
Winston is in prison, being questioned by a team of relentless interrogators for stepping out of his bounds — illegally possessing two books (one a diary) and allegedly becoming involved with a movement to overthrow the government.
The ensemble portrays party members and some of Winston's acquaintances. Justin Zsebe also plays Winston as he is portrayed in various flashback segments while he is subjected to horrific torture in an effort to force him back into the party line.
The tension mounts as Winston describes being spied on by two-way telescreens, used by the government to monitor actions of all party members. (The vast majority of the population, viewed as merely animals by the regime, are not closely watched but are kept in line by being spoon-fed government-sanctioned pornography, carefully manipulated propaganda and rationed food.)
The regime's mantra is "Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace."
"1984" is staged against a dark, somber backdrop replicating a prison cell, with sections that are transformed into other locales, such as an apartment, a meadow (where a clandestine meeting takes place) and an electric chair.
The touring production, part of Kingsbury Hall's newly initiated "On the Edge" series, drew a larger audience than first anticipated, and both performances (on Friday and Saturday) included question-and-answer sessions with the actors.
But it was the performance itself that left audiences with plenty to ponder.
