1984

[The following article is scheduled to appear in Daily Variety the week of September 17th and in Variety magazine the week of September 24th.]

To anyone who's been paying attention, there's no need to point out the parallels between George Orwell's prescient 1949 work and the present use of technology and PSYOPS to control citizens everywhere. Thankfully, playwright Walter Newton and director Rick Bernstein have foregone a high-tech look and any references to Bush, Blair, 9-11, and anti-terrorism and set this new adaptation in a period close to the original decrepit London, with only the patina of telescreens and the ubiquitous pale blue jumpsuits of party members to remind us that something insidious has happened to a once-thriving civilization.

Julie Rada as Julia and Dell Domnick as Winston Smith

Concentrating on the relationship between Winston and Julia, Newton zeroes in on Orwell's use of sex to express the ultimate rebellion against the party and Big Brother. But the script gets to the point too quickly, with the pair making plans after their first tryst (it took three in the book) to approach O'Brien about the secret Brotherhood. Given that the first act clocks in at a lean 53 minutes, the lack of buildup is glaring.

Otherwise, Newton's clever use of parallel interrogation and torture scenes in the second act make for a gripping climax to this classic tale of now familiar Orwellian warnings and startlingly close-to-home examples of Newspeak propaganda.

(L to R) Dell Domnick as Winston Smith gets an earful of Newspeak from Tyler Collins as Syme

Bernstein's choice of Dell Domnick and Julie Rada to play the weathered 39-year old Ministry of Truth revisionist and the fair 26-year old Anti-Sex League activist synch perfectly with Orwell's characterizations. Dominick captures the spark of curiosity below the world-weary caution of Winston, despite the daily doses of news bulletins and Victory Gin that are heavily etched on his grizzled countenance and slumping shoulders.

Julie Rada as Julia gets the once over from Priscilla Young as Mrs. Charrington

Rada, fresh from the London tour of the local The LIDA Project's Manson | family valUeS, reminds us of how light and breezy Orwell had painted Julia, as she coyly captures Winston's and our instincts with her animal magnetism and adventurous spirit.

The image of Big Brother watches over Paul Page as O'Brien and Dell Domnick as Winston Smith

But it is the snuffing of Winston and Julia's hope that ultimately delivers the urgency of Orwell's message. Here, Paul Page, as O'Brien, manifests the full force of state terror with a frightfully remorseless and sadistic torture session in pursuit of Winston's soul. Priscilla Young, double cast as the trustworthy prole, Mrs. Charrington, and O'Brien's female interrogation counterpart, compounds the horror of this heinous split-screen scene with the sheer delight she exudes as her captive, Julia, is wracked with increasingly excruciating voltages.

Sarah Roshan's utilitarian black and white set, Jonathan Scott-McKean's well-matched black and white video (of Emanuel Goldstein, war newsreel, and the omnipresent Big Brother icon), accompanied by Paige L. Larson's voice-overs bear stark testimony to the relentlessly oppressive and barren psychological landscape of such a time when, as Julia notes in Orwell's text, "The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep people frightened.'"

Miner's Alley Playhouse's world premiere of Walter L. Newton's 1984 runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 6:00 pm through October 22nd. 303-935-3044.

Bob Bows