Sonia Friedman Productions, Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Tulchin Bartner Productions present the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre production of
A new adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan
By George Orwell
Tickets £52.50, £39.50, £19.84, £10.00
April, 1984. 13:00. Comrade 6079, Winston Smith, thinks a thought, starts a diary, and falls in love. But Big Brother is always watching.
Orwell’s ideas have become our ideas; his fiction is often said to be our reality. The “definitive book of the 20th century” (The Guardian) is re-examined in a radical new staging exploring surveillance, identity and why Orwell’s vision of the future is as relevant now as ever.
Previews Monday 28 April - Wednesday 7 May
Press Night Thursday 8 May
Evening performances 7.30pm
Wednesday matinees 2.30pm from 7 May
Saturday matinees 2.30pm from 3 May
Parsons
Theatre includes: Romeo & Juliet (Headlong); Translations; Arcadia; Macbeth; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Pygmalion; Murmuring Judges; Arturo Ui; Black Snow (National Theatre); Coriolanus; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Loveplay; Luminosity; The Taming of the Shrew; The Comedy of Errors (RSC); Donkeys’ Years (Rose Theatre, Kingston); Plenty (Sheffield Crucible); The Prince of Homburg (Donmar Warehouse); Arthur & George (Birgmingham Rep); Tartuffe; The Alchemist; The Hypochondriac; The Misanthrope (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); The Constant Wife; The Real Thing (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Life After Scandal; Hand in Hand (Hampstead Theatre); Arcadia (Bristol Old Vic); The Miser (Chichester Theatre); As You Like It (Cheek by Jowl).
Television includes: Doctors; Holby City;Eastenders; The Amazing Mrs Pritchard; The Bill; Dream Team; A Touch of Frost.
Film includes: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Simon received an Olivier Award Nomination and New York Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance in As You Like It.
Winston
Theatre includes: Eternal Love (ETT UK tour), The Humans (BAM Theatre); The Shawl; Ubu Roi (Young Vic); Rewrite (National Theatre); The Conquest of the South Pole (Arcola Theatre); The Lady From the Sea (Rose Theatre, Kingston); King Lear (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Alls Well That Ends Well; Bedlam; Henry IV Parts 1 & 2; Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe) Some Trace of Her; DNA (National Theatre); The Miracle (National Theatre); Kebab (Royal Court); Ghosts (Bristol Old Vic); The Odyssey (National Theatre); Carries War (Lilian Bayliss Theatre); Midnight Cowboy (Assembly Theatre); And Then There Were None (West End); Major Barbara (Manchester Royal Exchange); Rabbit (Frantic Assembly / Tour); Rhinoceros (Oxford Playhouse); A Little Requiem for Kantor (Ariel Theatre).
Television includes: Father Brown; New Tricks; Casualty; Poirot: Murder on the Orient; Express; Doctors; Desperate Romantics; Midsomer Murders; Sins.
Film includes: The Christmas Candle; Celebration.
Sam received the Ian Charleson Award commendations for Ghosts and Othello.
O’Brien
Theatre includes: Dangerous Corner (Salisbury Playhouse); Insufficiency (Riverside London); A Handful of Dust (Cambridge Theatre Co / National Tour); Cider With Rosie (Birmingham Rep / National Tour); She’s In Your Hands (Royal Exchange, Manchester); London Assurance (Chichester Festival Theatre / National Tour / West End); War and Pieces; The Lucky Ones; Love’s Labour’s Lost; Victory (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Television includes: Death in Paradise; DCI Banks; Midsomer Murders; New Tricks; A Risk Worth Taking; Bonkers; Outside The Rules; HMO; Ally McBeal; Thanks; Oliver Twist; In the Name of Love; Frenchman’s Creek; Melissa, Original Sin; Pie in the Sky; No Bananas; Rhodes; The Vet; Peak Practice; Soldier Soldier; Against All Odds; Lovejoy; The Guilty; Deadwater; Hand in Glove; A Man Lay Dead; Death in a White Tie; Artists in Crime.
Film Includes: Delight; The Rendezvous; The Detonator; Bye Bye Harry; Derailed; Terminal; Queen of Sheba’s Pearls; Tooth; The Bourne Identity; Dead By Monday; Hard To Forget; Darkness Falls; St Ives; Death On Everest; Tom & Viv; Patriot Games; Murder of Quality.
Charrington
Stephen trained at Oxford University and the Webber Douglas Academy.
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet; ENRON; Paradise Lost (Headlong); Manchester Sound: The Massacre (Manchester Library Theatre); Breaking the Code (Frankfurt);Little Fines (Soundbites); The Tempest (Barbican BITE / Tour of Palestine); Cello (The Yard); Things That Make No Sense/Wiff Waff (Theatre Uncut / Latitude); Into Thy Hands (Jericho House / Wilton’s Music Hall); Billy Bow (Nuffield Theatre); Henry IV parts I and II (Bristol Old Vic); The Lie (King’s Head Theatre); Only When I Laugh; Under the Yum-Yum Tree (The Mill at Sonning); Macbeth (Salisbury Playhouse); Lady Windermere’s Fan (Royal Exchange, Manchester / tour); Twelfth Night (Battersea Arts Centre); The Long and the Short and the Tall (West End); The Metamorphoses (Clod Ensemble); Travels With My Aunt (Leicester Haymarket / tour); Of Thee I Sing (Barbican).
Television includes: The Courtroom; All Rise for Julian Clary.
Film includes: Sexdrive.
Radio includes: Bernice Summerfield; Doctor Who.
Stephen chairs the JMK Trust for young theatre directors and is the author of several published short stories.
Martin
Theatre includes: Blair’s Children (Cockpit); War Horse (National / New London); Faith and Cold Reading (Live Theatre, Newcastle); Scorched (Dialogue / Old Vic Tunnels); The Seagull (Royal Court / Broadway); Macbeth (Broadway / Brooklyn Academy of Music / West End); Twelfth Night; Macbeth (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Seagull; AC/DC; Alice Trilogy (Royal Court); The Water Harvest (National Theatre Studio); Stones in His Pockets (West End / tour); Molly Sweeney (Theatr Clwyd / tour); Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Perth Rep); Of Mice and Men (Southwark Playhouse); Into the West / Tir Na n’Og (Harbourfront Centre, Toronto / US tour); Antigone (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield / tour); The Romans in Britain (Man in the Moon Theatre); Othello; Macbeth (Riverside Studios); Cardenio (Globe Theatre); Cloud Nine (Lyric Hammersmith); King Lear (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
Television includes: Macbeth, Titanic: Birth of a Legend; Bass Odyssey.
Film includes: That Deadwood Feeling; Bullethead; Lone Clouds.
Syme
Matthew trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (Headlong); Sleuth (Watermill Theatre, Newbury); War Horse (National Theatre / New London); The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse); This Happy Breed (Theatre Royal Bath); Hamlet: 1603 (White Bear Theatre); Atman (Finborough Theatre); Nicholas Nickleby (Tour / Gielgud Theatre / Toronto); Bent (Trafalgar Studios); Tartuffe (Watermill Theatre, Newbury / on tour).
Television includes: My Family.
Film includes: Alice; The Performance; The Runner.
Mrs Parsons
Mandi trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes: The Knitting Circle (Soho Theatre); Amazonia; Midnight Hour (Young Vic); Menopause – the Musical (Shaw Theatre); Carrie’s War (West End / Sadler’s Wells); Mary Poppins (Prince Edward); Thatcher’s Women (Paines Plough, Tricycle); The Miracle Plays (Oxford Stage Company); The Mystery Plays (Liverpool Playhouse / St Bartholomew’s Church); One Mo’ Time; Godspell (Barbican); Zipp! (Duchess Theatre); The Men I’ve Had (Young Vic / Jermyn Street); Peer Gynt; Romeo and Juliet (National Theatre); Anansi Steals the Wind (Talawa Theatre / Southbank Centre / Bloomsbury); As You Like It (Theatre Royal Bath / US Tour); Simply Heavenly (Trafalgar Studios); Twelfth Night – the Musical (Edinburgh Festival); Pinocchio (Stratford East); ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Talawa Theatre); The Threepenny Opera (Bloomsbury); Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare in the Park).
Television includes: Scrubbers; Slags; Just Sex; Dream Stuffing; Casualty; Sea of Souls; Smack the Pony; Gems; Night and Day; Crown Prosecutor; Call Me Mister; Paradise Park.
Julia
Hara trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
For the Almeida: The House of Bernarda Alba.
Theatre includes: Mare Rider (Arcola Theatre / International Tour); Britannicus (Wilton’s Music Hall); Pericles (Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park); Uncle Vanya (Arcola Theatre / Belgrade Theatre, Coventry); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe / Tour); It Felt Empty When The Heart Went at First but it is Alright Now (Arcola Theatre / Clean Break).
Television includes: The Smoke; The Bible; Holby City.
Understudy O’Brien, Charrington
Theatre includes: Ghosts (Trafalgar Studios); An Enemy of the People (Just Jones); Parkway Dreams (Eastern Angles); Sports Play (Just a Must); Casablanca (Future Cinema); Murder Me Gently (Crossroads Theatre Company); The Winter’s Tale (Shake-a-Leg); Sexual Ironing (WriteOn!); Romeo and Juliet (British Shakespeare Company / Shake-a- Leg); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ocras); Broken (Woven); Henry V (Tour de Force Ltd); Life Is a Dream (Reds); Romeo and Juliet (Cambridge Touring Theatre); The Bright and Bold Design (the Actors Company); The Tempest (Cambridge Experimental Theatre).
Film includes: Fraternity; Shelter; FIT; The Adventures of George the Projectionist; Free Ride.
Understudy Mrs. Parsons, Julia
Lucy trained at Webber Douglas.
Theatre includes: Abigail’s Party (number one tour); Other Hands (Riverside Studios and tour); Touch (National Theatre Studio); For Services Rendered (Union);A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Wycombe Swan); Timon of Athens (Instant Classics); Hamlet: 1603 (Vital Signs Theatre); Peer Gynt (Ibsen Stage Company); Peter Pan (Chelmsford Civic Theatre).
Understudy Parsons, Martin, Syme
Theatre includes: Abigail's Party (UK Number One Tour); Leviathan (Arcola); Tuesday's Good (Old Red Lion); The Same... But, Different (Pleasance Theatre - Winner, Edinburgh Festival Award for Comedy).
Television includes: Life's Not All Ha Ha Hee Hee (Hat Trick/BBC); My Family; EastEnders; The Bill; Heartbeat. Jake is an award-winning writer and comedian.
Adapted and Created by
Robert is the Associate Director of the Almeida.
As Associate Director of Headlong (2010-2013), theatre includes: Boys; Romeo and Juliet; Decade.
Other theatre includes: The Alchemist (Liverpool Playhouse); Catalysta (Ovalhouse).
Robert was Artistic Director of the Arden Theatre Company in Stockton-on-Tees from 2003-2007 and of the Swan Theatre Company in Cambridge from 2005-2008, where he was awarded the Susie Guatier-Smith Prize for his contribution to theatre.
Adapted and Created by
As Director, Theatre includes: Contractions (Studio Theatre, Washington DC); Cradle Me (Finborough Theatre).
As Writer, Theatre includes: Reise durch die Nacht (Schauspielhaus Köln); Lungs (Studio Theatre Washington DC and Paines Plough/Sheffield Theatres); Don Juan Comes Back from the War (Finborough Theatre); Monster (Royal Exchange / Manchester International Festival); The Most Humane Way to Kill a Lobster (Theatre503).
Future Projects include: Wunschloses Unglück (Burgtheater Wien); The Forbidden Zone (Salzburg Festival); People, Places and Things (Headlong); Every Brilliant Thing (Paines Plough / Pentabus). Duncan’s play Lungs has been produced in many productions around the world, most recently at the Schaubühne in Berlin, directed by Katie Mitchell.
Duncan is also winner of two awards in the inaugural Bruntwood Playwriting Competition and his play Lungs won Best New Play in the Off West End Awards. Reise durch die Nacht, created with Katie Mitchell and Lyndsey Turner, won Best German Language Production at the Nestroypreis.
Design
Chloe trained at Wimbledon School of Art. She received the Arts Foundation Fellowship for Design Performance 2013.
Theatre includes: The World of Extreme Happiness (The Shed, National Theatre); Boys (Headlong); Open Court (Royal Court); Cannibals (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Praxis Makes Perfect (National Theatre Wales); The Events (Actors Touring Company / Young Vic); The History Boys (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Circle Mirror Transformation (Royal Court); Salt, Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse / Trafalgar Studios 2); Disco Pigs and Sus (Young Vic); Blackta (Young Vic); My Shrinking Life; Appointment With the Wicker Man; Knives in Hens (National Theatre Scotland); The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (National Theatre Wales / EdinburghFestival); The Gate Keeper (Royal Exchange, Manchester); Ghost Story (SkyArts Live Drama); Britannicus (Wilton’s Music Hall); My Romantic History (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield / Bush); Joseph K and The Kreutzer Sonata (Gate Theatre); Songs From a Hotel Bedroom (Royal Opera House / tour); It Felt Empty When the Heart Went at First but It Is Alright Now (Clean Break Theatre); Everything Must Go!; This Wide Night (Soho Theatre); The Mother Ship and How to Tell the Monsters From the Misfits (Birmingham Rep); The Country (Salisbury Playhouse); Desire Lines (Sherman Theatre, Cardiff); Small Miracle (Tricycle / Mercury Theatre, Colchester).
Opera includes: The Little Sweep and Let’s Make an Opera (Sweden); The Magic Flute (English Touring Opera); War and Peace (Scottish Opera / Royal Conservatoire Scotland); Cunning Little Vixen; Orpheus in the Underworld (Royal College of Music); La Calisto (Early Opera Company).
Chloe is winner of the 2007 Best Design Award from the TMA for Small Miracle (Mercury Theatre, Colchester) and the Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Design for Performance: Set and Costume, 2013.
Lighting Designer
Theatre and Opera includes: The Mistress Contract; Gastronaughts; The Djinns of Eidgah (Royal Court); Praxis Makes Perfect (Neon Neon / National Theatre Wales); Macbeth (National Theatre Scotland / Broadway / Lincoln Center); Green Snake (National Theatre China); The Shawl (Young Vic); The Village Bike; Happy Days (Sheffield Crucible); The Talk of the Town (Dublin Festival); The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning (National Theatre Wales); 27; The Wheel; The House of Bernarda Alba; Empty/Miracle Men; Home (National Theatre Scotland); One Monkey Don’t Stop the Show (Eclipse Theatre); And the Horse You Rode in On (Told by an Idiot); Statement of Regret (National Theatre); Sunday In The Park With George (West End); The Wolves in the Walls (National Theatre Scotland / Improbable); That Face (Royal Court Theatre / West End) Othello; Dirty Wonderland; pool (no water); Peepshow; Hymns and Sell Out (Frantic Assembly).
Dance includes: Broken (Motionhouse); Motor Show (LIFT/Brighton Festival); Electric Hotel (Sadler’s Wells / Fuel); God’s Garden (Arthur Pita / Open Heart / Linbury); Electric Counterpoint (Royal Opera House); Scattered (Motionhouse tour / Southbank Centre); Run! and Renaissance (Greenwich / Docklands International Festival); Beyond Belief (Legs on the Wall / Sydney); Encore (Sadler’s Wells).
Future work includes: new works by Craig Revel Horwood, Rafael Bonachela and Will Tuckett for the BalletBoyz at the Royal Festival Hall.
Natasha has won the Theatre Award UK in 2011 for Happy Days (Best Design) and an Olivier Award in 2007 for Sunday in the Park With George (Best Lighting Design).
Sound Designer
Tom trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
For the Almeida: Encourage the Others.
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (Headlong); Grounded (Gate / Traverse Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Headlong) Lion Boy (Theatre Complicite); As You Like It (Royal Shakespeare Company); Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse); Hitchcock Blonde (Hull Truck); The Spire (Salisbury Playhouse); Roundabout Season at Shoreditch Town Hall; London; Wasted (Paines Plough); The Rover (Hampton Court Palace); Love, Love, Love (Royal Court); Island (National Theatre / tour); Disco Pigs (Young Vic); Dead Heavy Fantastic (Liverpool Everyman); Plenty (Crucible); Chalet Lines; The Knowledge; Little Platoons; 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (Bush Theatre); Hairy Ape; Shivered; Faith; Hope and Charity; The Hostage; Toad (Southwark Playhouse); Sold (Theatre503); The Chairs (Ustinov Bath); The Country; The Road To Mecca; The Roman Bath; 1936; The Shawl (Arcola); Utopia; Bagpuss; Everything Must Go!; Soho Streets (Soho Theatre); The Machine Gunners (Polka); Fat (Oval House / tour); Just Me Bell (Graeae / tour); Fanta Orange; Blue Heaven (Finborough); Rhinegold (The Yard).
As Associate theatre includes: A Season in the Congo (Young Vic); Choir Boy (Royal Court); Broken Space season (Bush Theatre).
Video
As Video Designer, theatre, dance and opera includes: A Christmas Carol (Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh); Love Your Soldiers (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The History Boys, (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); Quiz Show (Traverse Theatre); Carousel (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland); White Rose (Firebrand Theatre); 8 (Glasgay Festival); Biding Time (Remix) (A Band Called Quinn / Tromolo Productions); Ghost Patrol (Scottish Opera / Music Theatre Wales); Educating Ronnie (Hightide / MacRobert Arts Centre, Stirling); Tree of Knowledge (Traverse Theatre); Can We Talk About This? (DV8 Physical Theatre); Clockwork (Visible Fictions / Scottish Opera); Girl X (National Theatre of Scotland); 99... 100 (National Theatre of Scotland); Playback (Ankur Productions); The Not-so-fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo (Vox Motus); We Dance Wee Groove (Stillmotion); Peter Pan (National Theatre of Scotland); Treasure Island (Wee Stories); Promises Promises (Random Accomplice); Cresseid (Edinburgh International Festival); Bright Black (Vox Motus); White Tea (Fire Exit); One Giant Leap (Wee Stories); The Tailor of Inverness (Dogstar).
As Projection Designer: Wild Swans (Young Vic / ART).
As Video Co-designer: Ten Billion (59 Productions, Royal Court); As One (Royal Ballet).
Tim has worked as head of video for the National Theatre of Scotland and toured internationally. His work has been seen in places as diverse as Sydney Opera House and the Shetland Isles.
Casting Director
GGinny has been casting director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre, English Touring Theatre, Soho Theatre, the Rose Theatre, Kingston, and the Ustinov Studio, Bath.
Recent theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (UK Tour); King Lear (Liverpool Everyman / Young Vic); In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, Scenes From a Marriage (St James Theatre); Relative Values (Theatre Royal Bath), Pride and Prejudice (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park); Ghosts (Rose Theatre, Kingston / English Touring Theatre); The Alchemist (Liverpool Playhouse); Abigail’s Party (Menier Chocolate Factory / West End / tour); The American Plan (Ustinov Studio, Bath / St James Theatre).
As a freelancer, Ginny has cast for the West End as well as for the Arcola, Bath Theatre Royal, Birmingham Rep, Bolton Octagon, Bristol Old Vic, Frantic Assembly, Greenwich Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Lyric Theatre Belfast, Menier Chocolate Factory, Northampton Royal, Oxford Playhouse, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Drum, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, St James Theatre, Shared Experience, Theatre Clwyd, The Young Vic, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Wilton’s Music Hall. She has also worked on many television, film and radio productions.
Associate Sound Designer
Pete trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
As Sound Designer, theatre includes: Farragut North (Southwark Playhouse); Space Junk (Lyric Hammersmith); Noise (Northern Stage, co-sound designer); The Master and Margarita (Barbican / European Tour, additional sound designer).
As Associate Sound Designer, theatre includes: The Magic Flute (London Coliseum / Amsterdam Muziektheater); Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Theatre / Theatre Royal Newcastle); Lionboy (UK tour / London Unicorn); Rock Pool (UK tour).
Pete was also the Assistant Soundscape Designer for the London Olympic Opening Ceremony.
Associate Director
For the Almeida: Children’s Children (Assistant Director).
As Director, theatre includes: A Marked Man (HighTide); 24 Hour Plays: Old Vic New Voices 2012 (Old Vic); The Seagull (Bloomsbury); Close (Arcola); August Town (RADA); Mr Kolpert (C soco, Edinburgh).
As Assitant Director, theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (Headlong / UK tour); Noises Off (Old Vic / UK tour); Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Bath / UK tour); The Alchemist (Liverpool Playhouse); 24 Hour Musicals Celebrity Gala (Old Vic).
Syme
Matthew trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Theatre includes: Romeo and Juliet (Headlong); Sleuth (Watermill Theatre, Newbury); War Horse (National Theatre / New London); The Busy Body (Southwark Playhouse); This Happy Breed (Theatre Royal Bath); Hamlet: 1603 (White Bear Theatre); Atman (Finborough Theatre); Nicholas Nickleby (Tour / Gielgud Theatre / Toronto); Bent (Trafalgar Studios); Tartuffe (Watermill Theatre, Newbury / on tour).
Television includes: My Family.
Film includes: Alice; The Performance; The Runner.
★★★★★ It is hugely ambitious to put this dystopia on stage…. Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan have pulled off something tremendous… Artistic Director Rupert Goold is making the Almeida essential again.
The Observer
★★★★★ Brilliant… creates a dynamic response that strips away complacency and plays on those creeping anxieties about trust, manipulation and freedom.
Financial Times
★★★★★ This stunning play is… a chilling, relentlessly ingenious 100 minutes.
The Times
★★★★ It is no mean feat to offer a new perspective on a familiar work. That, however, is what Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan...have ingeniously done.
The Guardian
★★★★ A rigorous and prodigiously confident reimagining of Orwell’s dystopian nightmare. Chloe Lamford’s design explodes into an onslaught of fierce light and buzzing energy… stunning
Evening Standard
The running time is approximately 1 hour and 41 minutes without an interval.
Simon Coates
Sam Crane
Tim Dutton
Stephen Fewell
Christopher Patrick Nolan
Matthew Spencer
Mandi Symonds
Hara Yannas
Understudies
Matt Ray Brown
Lucy Lill
Jake Tindle
Adapted and created by
Robert Icke & Duncan Macmillan
Design Chloe Lamford
Lighting Natasha Chivers
Sound Tom Gibbons
Video Tim Reid
Casting Ginny Schiller
Associate Sound Designer
Pete Malkin
Associate Director Daniel Raggett