Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Five stars
Imagine a world where truth doesn’t matter anymore. Then imagine someone who held on to old truths is spied on, hounded and tortured until they kow-tow to the official version and fall in line with everyone else. Welcome to Chris Hannan’s searing new stage version of George Orwell’s visionary novel, which sets out its dystopian store with major resonances of so called democracy now in terms of how dissent on all sides is dealt with.
From the opening bombardment of electronic noise, Dominic Hill’s production brings home the mix of mundanity and terror in Hannan’s adaptation. This comes in the regulation utilitarian blue uniforms worn by Winston Smith and his regimented peers as much as it does from Winston’s final submission to the system following a relentless series of rapid-fire torture scenes. In-between comes the frightening realities of masked men turning up at meetings to remove deviants, and the collective release of a baying mob watching state sanctioned violence.
Any hope for love and liberation comes through Winston’s emotional alliance with Julia, and a glimpse into a past where the simple pleasures of beautiful things were once allowed. This is brought home by the impressionistic piano patterns of Nikola Kodjabashia’s underscore. If the future briefly looks bright, this is upended by a series of insistent electronic blasts by Phineas de Thornley Head that forms part of Mark Melville’s sound design. As it punctuates the endless barrage of propaganda that sees Winston and Julia betrayed and brutalised at every turn, sound here is used as a weapon in much the same way as the monumental slogans in Heather Scott’s video projections are.
Hill’s big production takes place on Tom Piper’s steel grey set that acts as prison, torture chamber and sanctuary for Winston and Julia, played respectively by Jack Tarlton and Jessica Hardwick with a nuanced mix of vulnerability and defiance. As they lead a cast of eight through the stark gloom of Lizzie Powell’s lighting, it is their humanity that pulses the show.
All this is framed by an appearance by Orwell himself, who opens proceedings in the hospital outside Glasgow where he was treated for tuberculosis while attempting to finish what turned out to be his final novel. With Tarlton also playing Orwell, his arrival and brush with a female stranger played by Hardwick initially has a very British Brief Encounter vibe to it. Once he gets to the hospital, however, he finds himself being treated by a fellow Spanish Civil War veteran who turns out to have fought with Franco’s fascists. This adds a whole new dimension to Orwell’s story, which has a surprising levity at points by way of Hannan’s crisply delivered dialogue.
An underlying menace remains, however, particularly from Irene MacDougall’s O’Brien, a terrifying figure with dark shades of Lotte Lenya’s portrayal of Soviet James Bond villain Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love.
At the heart of this mighty collaboration between the Citz, Dundee Rep and the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, however, is a chilling portrayal of a society where enforced groupthink is the norm. Like Winston and Julia, Hannan begs to differ in a production that posits freedom to disagree with each other as a crucial marker of a civilised society. Imagine that.
The Herald, September 5th 2026
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