Friday, November 22, 2024

FADS 1984 performance

Ferring Amateur Dramatic Society has produced a first-class version of George Orwell's famous satire on authoritarianism, 1984

Big Brother can do no wrong and the past is manipulated to justify whatever his current policy is. Does this sound familiar?

Niall Conlan is excellent in the main role of Winston Smith. Winston is one of those charged wih distorting history to fit in with the Party's changing views.

He commits the thoughtcrime of remembering the past and of falling in love. He falls in love with Julia (played by Sophie Mason Griffiths who is in turn played by Natalie Atherton in a reconstruction of Winston's crime)

Pervading the story is the doublethink of newspeak. Language is restricted with the idea that it becomes impossible to disagree with the party.

This is an excellent interpretation of the story. It is doubleplus good.

Perhaps they could have used pictures of Donald Trump instead of Joseph Stalin to make autocracy more relevant to the 2024 audience! 





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