Review by John Gibson. Venue 139. Assembly Roxy – Upstairs

★★☆☆☆

This production lost the actor playing O’Brien (Burton in the film version) and had to find a replacement at very short notice. Daniel Llewelyn-Williams steps in (complete with Ipad for prompts) and sets the tone for what will be two thirds video, one-third live theatre. This uneven aesthetic does not create the requisite intensity or paranoia inherent in the story.

Smith is portrayed in a very physical fashion (getting thrown onto and off the central torture bunk in the centre of the stage) by a Northern Irish actor who keeps his natural brogue. Ordinarily this would not be a problem — in a festival that is dominated by Estuary accents — and would be a welcome change. But Orwell intended Smith to be relatable (the same as those around him) so the accent makes Smith stand out as the other more than necessary. Julia, on the other hand, is played by a Spanish actor whose natural voice helps define her exoticism.

The video segments that constitute long periods of the play are much more coherent than the early scenes which establish Orwell’s nightmare parallel world. Again there are problems with the fundamentals of the story: Llewelyn-Williams (reading from the Ipad at times) consistently mispronounces Oceania. The tertiary characters suffer from a disconnect to Smith as they appear to have been directed to not actually interact in a recognisably human manner.

The video stitches everything together, and the actor’s performances are tied to the various cues in the drama; Big Brother slogans and other assorted visuals designed to convey Smith’s ideological torment. At the crushing and somewhat low-key climax, Smith has spent approximately 15 minutes sitting on the stage (reflecting on events) as the video plays. This does not make for a compelling experience at all.

Despite these serious structural and aesthetic problems, there are certain scenes in the video relationship of Winston and Julia, that illustrate a blossoming connection. Also the final torture/interrogation is (unlike the rest of the play) slick and well-rehearsed, but this production promised a re-imagining of the story and – due to the over-reliance on tech and lack of imagination – that promised remained unfulfilled.