Performance treatment
Tongtong Zhang I believe the play 1984 by George Orwell is representational. According to the definition of representational acting, representational style of acting provide audience an illusion of watching a representation of life. A representational set generally form a type of reality setting. We need a lot of actors, costumes and props for representational acting. For example, the scene should be happened in a hard, bare room. Therefore, the stage is set up like a room. There are tables, chairs, one telescreen, and lots of posters. All these setups are trying to convince the audience what they see is a hard, bare room where the story happened. Also, there are 12 actors to play 12 different roles. Moreover, the representational set is more suitable for a realism play. Representational acting doesn’t require interaction between actors and audiences. It is as though the audience doesn’t even exist; they are separated from the stage and the actor is unaware of the audience’s presence. In contrast of representational acting, presentational is a term which use to emphasize theatricality and acknowledges the theatre as theatre. In presentational setting there is no illusion. In presentational theatre, epic stories can be told with a minimum number of actors and a few costumes and props.
There are several conflicts exist in this play and I want to talk about the central conflict first. The central conflict in a play is the main problem in the story. The central conflict here is the man vs. the society, or we can say is the individual (free will) vs. government (Totalitarianism). The individual stands for Winston Smith and the government stands for the Big Brother. In the play, Winston was struggling on whether he should give up his own free will and obey Big Brother for everything or not. The government stands for Big Brother, a totalitarian society. Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible. In 1984, the government try to control every aspect of its citizens, their life styles, their language, and even their minds. The government modify or remove all the past documents such as books, newspapers, magazines, records, tapes and anything containing information about the past and are rewritten with the “accurate” meaning of whatever the government wants it to be. As the result, all the past records are erased and citizens must believe what the new ones say or else they are caught by the Thought Police. Also, the Telescreen is an important tool for the government. It is everywhere and even required to be installed at home. It is always turned on and giving out false information and orders for citizens. Also, Big Brother has a slogan “WAR IS PEACE”, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY”, “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”. Winston tried to fight against Big Brother. He bought a diary and tried to record his real thoughts in the diary like “Down with big brother.” He had illegal love affair with Julia and joined the Brotherhood, which is an organization secretly against Big Brotherhood. He thought he could trust someone but in the end he can’t even trust himself. He gave up his free will in the end because of the torturing and losing hopes. Or I can say he gave up his humanity. There are also other conflicts exist in the play. For example, there is an internal conflict inside his mind. Everything he does he needs to struggle with his mind. When he bought the diary, he doesn’t know can he record his real thought in it because he doesn’t want to die. However, he thought he’s already died if he doesn’t record his real thought. Also, when they are shouting Big Brother, he wrote the Down with Big Brother in his diary even though he doesn’t know how it happened. The last example is when he met Julia, he said the first thought of his was to rape her and kill her. However, in the reality, he fell in love with her instead of simply having sex with her. These are all conflicts inside his mind. And it is also resolved in the end when he gave up his free will. Man vs. Technology is also another conflict in the play but it is also one type of Individual vs. Society. The telescreen can monitor people and it represent the power of Big Brother. The citizens do not have any privacy or freedom under the technology. The “OUTSIDE” also known as external/presentational. In external acting, the actor poses and use facial expression to express their emotions. However, in the “INSIDE” also known as internal/representational acting, the actor generates the emotion by actually trying to feel what the character is feeling. I think in this play there could be both of acting exist. First, I think Winston, Julia and any other actors except O’Brien is internal acting. They generate their emotion by actually trying to feel what their characters are feeling. For example, when Winston and Julia are kissing, I can feel the passion between these two characters. However, I think for O’Brien, he is external acting. Because he is performing behind a screen and all we can hear is his voice. He need to use vocal technology to express his emotion.
I think the stage setup really stick out in my mind. Through out the story, the main idea is that the government is watching every move of the citizens. The Big Brother is everywhere and he is watching you. The stage setup can help to express it. There are posters everywhere on the walls with Big Brother’s pictures. People can feel that Big Brother is everywhere. Also there are a lot of posters about censorship on the wall which is also one of the main ideas of the story. The tools for torturing are also memorable for me. I remember there are several tools for torturing. The first one is electronic shocking and the second one is watering. By displaying these tools, I can understand why Winston would choose to follow and love Big Brother in the end.
In the final moments of the play, Winston was released from the jail because he already learned how to love and obey Big Brother. For example, he knew 2+2=5 instead of 4 because this is what Big Brother says. He confessed everything and betrayed Julia and himself. He gave up his free will as individual. I think the central conflict is resolved because the central conflict is between individual’s free will and the government (Big Brother). In the end, Big Brother won because Winston gave up on his free will. As the result, there is no more conflict between them.
I think the theatre chooses to produce this production for several reasons. Firstly, 1984 is a very classic dystopian novel written by George Orwell. It is very good to see the story in this form. We have been studying a lot about the actor, the playwright, the designers and technicians and the directors. Specifically, we have been studying about the stage setup, costumes, the lighting and sounding. By watching the play 1984, we can apply what we studied into a real play, which can help u to have a better understanding of what we have learned. We can enrich ourselves through the play and this is very educational. Secondly, I think the theatre want us to know the dangers of totalitarianism because this is one of the main concepts on the story. Even though there are no such society exists nowadays, it is still important to learn this because it can always be a warning. Thirdly, the reason to choose this play is it reveals the humanity. It reveals the dark side of the humanity. Everyone is selfish and people can betray others in order to protect themselves. By watching the play, I guess the school try to share us a lesson not to rely on someone too much. In the end, I think the theatre let us know the importance of control of information and history. There is one concept in the play: whoever can control the past, can control the future. The party controls every media and they can revise them into what they want so that they can hide the truth from citizens.
This production is communicated to the audience in an art form. Even though we are now in United States, which is a capitalist country controlled by two parties, it seems irrelevant to us, it is a reflection of history during the cold war period. I feel very touched by the story because I am Chinese and I was raised in the communism country. I feel connected to my own Country. There was one time in the past my country has similar situation but not this extreme. It is called the cultural revolution. People were also live in the fear because they can get caught by thought police. In addition, I think the production is communicated to the audience by the performance itself. I remember there was one scene about Winston and Julia were in the room and Winston was scared by a mouse. The Big Brother is always watching so that the thought police know his biggest fear is mice. They use it to threaten him in the end. It is scary not only because of the mouse, but also because of no privacy. Every movement of yours is exposed to others and they can use it to against you. It makes me to appreciate how good my life is because I can have my basic human right to enjoy my freedom.
I think the stage setup appealed to me the most. I am very impressed by the setup. Because this is a representational acting, the stage must look like the actual scene in the story. It successfully did in that way. With all the posters and telescreen, it makes me feel like I travel back to that time and actually see what is going on. I am shocked by the double thinking of people. For example, Winston has to obey Big Brother in front of people and telescreen, and he also hate Big Brother when there is no one around him. Also with the torturing tools, I can feel the fear and desperateness of Winston. This make me understand why he betrayed in the end because normal people can’t get through this. The sound also appeals to me especially the telescreen’s. It keeps on telling people the wrong information and one day people will lost in it even when they hear the right one they won’t believe it.