1984, The Actor's Gang, Lyric Theatre, Academy for Performing Arts. Ends tonight
This Michael Gene Sullivan adaptation of George Orwell's classic 1984 is multi-layered, intense and disturbing - exactly how it should be.
Coupled with heavy narrative and direction from Hollywood's Tim Robbins, this production, which finishes tonight, portrays an authoritarian world that is monochromic, sinister and, at times, frighteningly real.
The drama begins at the point when protagonist Winston Smith (played by Adam Walsh) is jailed and being tortured at the Ministry of Love for keeping a diary - a punishable crime in the fictitious totalitarian world known as Oceania.
Big Brother, Oceania's supreme authority, also learns from the diary of his other 'crimes': his love for a woman named Julia (when he should only love Big Brother) and disloyalty to the party.
Most of the play involves recollections of Winston's crimes based on what he wrote in his diary. The important episodes are re-enacted by 1st Party Member (Brian Finney) as Winston, 2nd Party Member (Kaili Hollister) as Julia, 3rd Party Member (V.J. Foster) as Syme, and 4th Party Member (Steven Porter) as Parsons.