Well-known actor, Tim Robbins is in Australia to direct George Orwell's play, 1984, at the Melbourne International Arts Festival, starting next Thursday.
"Robbins, who is still artistic director of the Actors' Gang, despite living nearly 5000km away and taking a four-year break, directed 1984 from an adaptation by Michael Gene Sullivan of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He says he was forcibly struck by the parallels between Orwell's dystopia and contemporary Western society.
"It's relevance to the world now is truly shocking. Particularly the book-within-a-book chapters, written by Winston's enemy Goldstein. I'd forgotten they even existed, I had to reread the book after 20 years to check that Gene hadn't made anything up. (The chapters) are called War is Peace, and Freedom is Slavery, and the prescience with which Orwell was writing in 1947 nails the political situation we're in right now regarding war, regarding fear, regarding the use of fear to prolong the public's acceptance and tolerance of continuous war, regarding justifying military spending. I mean, look at the war on terror. When do you win that war? When do you pull out of that country?"
Besides the eerie similarities between Orwell's doublespeak and now familiar phrases such as coalition of the willing, patriot act, rendition, collateral damage, and the rebranding of the War Department as Defence, Robbins was also attracted to the way Sullivan had framed the play. It is set entirely within Room 101, as Winston Smith is re-educated over the course of two hours. Winston's tormentors have his diary, and they take him through the tale of his betrayal of Big Brother by acting it out."
So says Robbins in this interesting piece in The Australian, on the man, his thoughts and the play he is about to direct.
"Robbins, who is still artistic director of the Actors' Gang, despite living nearly 5000km away and taking a four-year break, directed 1984 from an adaptation by Michael Gene Sullivan of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. He says he was forcibly struck by the parallels between Orwell's dystopia and contemporary Western society.
"It's relevance to the world now is truly shocking. Particularly the book-within-a-book chapters, written by Winston's enemy Goldstein. I'd forgotten they even existed, I had to reread the book after 20 years to check that Gene hadn't made anything up. (The chapters) are called War is Peace, and Freedom is Slavery, and the prescience with which Orwell was writing in 1947 nails the political situation we're in right now regarding war, regarding fear, regarding the use of fear to prolong the public's acceptance and tolerance of continuous war, regarding justifying military spending. I mean, look at the war on terror. When do you win that war? When do you pull out of that country?"
Besides the eerie similarities between Orwell's doublespeak and now familiar phrases such as coalition of the willing, patriot act, rendition, collateral damage, and the rebranding of the War Department as Defence, Robbins was also attracted to the way Sullivan had framed the play. It is set entirely within Room 101, as Winston Smith is re-educated over the course of two hours. Winston's tormentors have his diary, and they take him through the tale of his betrayal of Big Brother by acting it out."
So says Robbins in this interesting piece in The Australian, on the man, his thoughts and the play he is about to direct.
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