WithinTheatre’s Slavic-inspired 1984 plays the Omnibus Theatre
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength”
Part of the problem in locating continued or renewed relevance in prophetic source material, is that theatre companies are rarely alone in finding it. George Orwell’s 1984 is a telling example – last year alone saw Theatre Royal Bath produce a touring version, Pure Expression try an immersive production in Hackney and WithinTheatre interpret it their own way at the Edinburgh Fringe, now at Clapham’s Omnibus for a week.
As a Slavic company, their perspective is certainly strikingly pertinent. Against a backdrop of contemporary totalitarian rule in Russia and Belarus where the book is still banned, a shadow of these horrendous present-day circumstances looms large some 40 years on from the setting, 75 years from its creation. That’s a cultural relevance that can’t be bought and so Sofia Barysevich’s production unblinkingly sets this version in Belarus.
Using inspiration from Nick Hern’s adaptation, the five-strong company have developed their own take, notions of subjective truth and doublethink directly correlated to the recent Belarussian elections and Western presentations of their validity. Winston’s interrogation thus hits differently here, Ivan Ivashkin’s O’Brien even more callously cold, Faiaz Valiullin’s Smith empathetic in a more direct way.
Creatively though, the relocation doesn’t result in as much of a reimagining as one might expect. It’s ultimately a fairly straightforward retelling, elements of physical theatre and multimedia not quite transformative against the starkness of Sonya Bleiph’s set design. Anastasia Aush, Kolya Mulakov, and Igor Laskiy round out the company well and I admire the initiative here and look forward to seeing them push it even further.
