Tim Robbins-Directed Adaptation of Orwell's 1984 on Stage Oct. 19
October 2, 2006
George Orwell's literary classic 1984 comes to the Eisenhower Auditorium stage with undeniable relevance to the post-9/11 world in an adaptation by a Los Angeles theater company co-founded by Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins. The Actors' Gang performs 1984, which contains adult language and situations, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, on the Penn State University Park campus.
The Actors' Gang, co-founded in 1981 by Robbins, performs plays that challenge audiences. "Our work," the company's manifesto proclaims, "is raw, immediate, socially minded and crafted with the highest artistic standards."
Tickets for the Center for the Performing Arts presentation are on sale at $36 for an adult, $20 for a University Park student, and $26 for a person 18 and younger. For tickets and information, visit www.cpa.psu.edu or phone (814) 863-0255. Outside the local calling area, dial 1-800-ARTS-TIX. Tickets are also available at Eisenhower Auditorium and Bryce Jordan Center, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays; Penn State Tickets Downtown, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; and HUB-Robeson Center, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays.
"This unenviable backdrop of ours, with daily headlines registering the curtailment of civil liberties for indeterminate national security imperatives, sharpens the urgency of The Actors' Gang staging of 1984," asserts a Los Angeles Times critic.
Adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan and directed by Robbins, The Actors' Gang's 1984 zeroes in on the most dramatic elements of the 1949 British novel about a man struggling to maintain a sense of self in a country ruled by paranoia.
The story takes place in London. Winston Smith, the protagonist, is a citizen of Oceania, one of the world's three countries. Oceania and the other mega-nations are totalitarian states led by Big Brother. Censorship–of behavior and even thoughts–is the order of the day.
Disgusted by his oppressed life, Smith longs to join the Brotherhood, a fabled group of underground rebels intent on bringing down Big Brother's government. Smith also meets Julia and falls in love with her. They have a sexual relationship, which is considered a crime.
United in their hatred for the regime, the couple is drawn to the home of O'Brien, an inner party member they believe is part of the Brotherhood. O'Brien is actually a faithful party member who has been planning Smith's demise for seven years. The pair is sent to a place where their thoughts can be set right. In Sullivan's adaptation, Smith has already been arrested and taken to the ironically named Ministry of Love.
"Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Pentagon figures," observes the Los Angeles Times critic, "yet the analogies are unavoidable all the same. And how could it be otherwise when Sullivan does such an exemplary job of distilling 1984's political essence? As a novelist, Orwell wasn't of the first tier, but he remains unsurpassed as a commentator on power's ingrained patterns of corruption."
The Center for the Performing Arts has planned a symposium and residency activities with members of The Actors' Gang, Penn State faculty, and others. Visit www.cpa.psu.edu and click on education for details.
Richard Brown and Sandra Zaremba sponsor the performance. WTAJ-TV 10 is the media sponsor. Free audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available for this performance at no extra charge to ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion that provides insight from a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.
Contact: Laura Sullivan, 814-863-6379