1984: An extraordinary ‘flashy’ and disturbing performance that pulls you out of your comfort zone **** (Playhouse Theatre, London)

Even if you haven’t read George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ you may be familiar with words such as ‘Orwellian’ or ‘Big brother.’ The protagonist, Winston Smith (Mark Arends) plunges you into an uncomfortable state almost immediately. He has numerous panic attacks and is unsure of where he is. From the opening scene, he’s alone writing privately on his distain for Big brother and –within a flash second – is surrounded by people discussing the literary context of Orwell’s novel.

In this Big brother world that Oceania is, civilians take part in a ‘two minutes of hate’ session that entails aggressively screaming and shouting much of what they have been indoctrinated with as displayed on a large scale screens. The words, ‘war is peace,’ and ‘freedom is slavery’ come up on Tim Reid’s video designs. As a viewer, it is a scary sight to endure as it undermines the daily comforts of an English democratic society.

The stagecraft and character of Smith make a startled audience anxious, uncertain and stress: after all, it’s a world where no one can be trusted. Smith, who has suspicions about Julia (Hara Yannas), a supposed purist of the party admits to loving him and they begin a clandestine relationship that they believe Big brother has no knowledge of. Yet in reality, He knows everything. Arends and Yannas show variations of rebellion through the lovers’ gestures of tasting hard-to-get chocolate, sex, and display of disorder and destruction; throwing clothes, furniture and paper all over the room. Together, they plot to overthrow the party with the counter-revolutionary party, ‘The Brotherhood’ and once O’Brien (Tim Dutton) poses as a member, all hope of a free future diminishes. He ensnares them simply to trap and stop them.

Credit goes to Chloe Lamford for her stage design of the scene that separates the lovers with sirens and alarms, which lead to a nightmare; enter room 101. Surveillance cameras, speedy soldiers, helicopter interference, and loud airspace noises cover the corners of the stage. Smith is clothed in a straitjacket and the torture commences. Dutton plays a calm and collected O’Brien who presents the ideals of the party as if it were rational yet every time he hears Smith answer ‘4’ to his question, ‘what is 2 +2?’ flashes and silent screams shift the stage that sees him electrocuting Smith leaving the rebel spitting out blood, teeth-less and fingerless. The worst is to yet to come. Room 101, the brainwash room that uses fear to drive out thought crimes dig out Smith’s own fear: rats. Just as the rodent's squeaky sounds begin to accumulate, he cries out desperately, ‘do it to Julia!’ and it is here that he relinquishes all love for her.

This adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan is a winner with its collaboration with Headlong, the Nottingham Playhouse and the Almeida. After the success of sell-out runs at the West End, they have added more dates to stage one of the best English novels of modern times.

1984 is showing until to August 23^rd at the Playhouse theatre

Jeff Rawle on living life on the edge, not forgetting your glasses and the challenge of playing 10 prominent characters that influenced Margaret Thatcher.

Jeff Rawle, famous for his sinister role as Silias Blissett from Channel 4’s ‘Hollyoaks’ and Amos Diggory from blockbuster movie ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, talked to me from a small room with a bowl of soup in front of him. It was his lunch break and the soup was kindly offered by the stage management team of the West End theatre where the play, ‘Handbagged’, will be shown this April since its move from the original Tri-cycle stage

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(Rawle as Amos Diggory, father of Cedric played by Robert Pattinson from the Harry Potter movie) 

Rawle explained how excited he was to be back with the cast members from last year’s production directed by the Tri-cycle theatre’s own Indhu Rubasingham. ‘It’s the fourth day from a four-month break. It’s lovely! It’s a chance to have another go and revisit the proof reads. We have Moira Boffini, the writer, with us at rehearsals and tweaking things.’

Last year, the play sold out immediately due to its interesting nature, which looks at Thatcher’s historical and political reign. Rawle has the challenging task of playing 10 characters for ‘Handbagged’ which he described as ‘a funny, engaging and witty 80s play about Thatcher’s remarkable right into power and her relationship with the Queen and others like Ronald Reagan.’

Having had a fair share of playing multiple characters at the National Theatre’s ‘Cocktail Sticks’ and ‘The Power of Yes’, Rawle thrives on playing characters of different ranges and in this case that includes Jerry Adams, Geoffrey Howe, Ronald Regan, Dennis Thatcher, Prince Philip, Michael Heseltine, Neil Kinnock and Peter Carrington. “It is  almost impossible especially when you’re coming off and on stage in a fast speed. Sometimes you literally have three lines to change from one character onto the next. It’s fraught with disaster, especially coming on with the wrong hat or forgetting your glasses. Apart from Neil Kinnock, that is.’  Nonetheless, the hassle of grabbing his characters’ props on time hasn’t stopped him from loving them. He acknowledges Reagan’s talents with the camera and microphone as a former actor himself, but saw that Howe was closely aligned to his range physically and vocally. ‘I never voted Conservative but I thought he was sensible, erudite and a bit of a dark horse. He was the one who brought Thatcher down and spoke sense when he made that remarkable speech.’ Rawle even had the pleasure of working with Kinnock whilst filming Channel 4’s comedy show, ‘Drop the Dead Donkey.’ 

Rawle told me how he loves cooking and reading in his spare time. ‘Doing nothing is quite an art for me as I am always doing something.’ He described the trials and tribulations he experienced in his 40-year acting career where he learnt to follow good plays and writers, guessed where his next role was coming from and ‘live life on the edge,’ but not in the cool and wild sense. Yet, he is looking out for his next role, ideally something classic like Shakespeare. 

(Rawle as Silias Blissett from ‘Hollyoaks’)

As we ended our conversation, he gave me a personal account on how ‘Handbagged’ compared to Britain during the 80s. He said: “It makes you feel empowered after watching ‘Handbagged’ especially when you are old like me and had lived through it and on a day-to-day basis. I didn’t realise what was happening around me in a dangerous way and to sit back and watch it played out -10 years - in front of you is amazing. The Tri-cycle play is all razzle-dazzle and we deserve to be at the West End because we sold out quick last year.’ Be sure to get your ticket now. 

‘Handbagged’ will showcase at the Vaudeville Theatre from the 3rd April to the 2^nd August 2014.