1984
adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan
from the novel by George Orwell
Theatre Pro Rata
October 17-26, 2014
Performing at Intermedia Arts
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (Copyright, The Estate of the Late Sonia
Brownell Orwell), adapted by Michael Gene Sullivan, by permission of Bill Hamilton
as the Literary Executor of the Estate of the Late Sonia Brownell Orwell.
Nineteen Eighty-Four: the novel
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Written in 1947-48 on the Scottish island of Jura; Orwell was seriously ill with
tuberculosis at the time.
One of the novel’s original titles was The Last Man in Europe.
Published in 1949; it has been banned or legally challenged as subversive or
ideologically corrupting throughout its publication history.
Many of its terms and concepts—including Big Brother, Newspeak,
thoughtcrime—became part of popular culture following the novel’s
publication.
The novel has been adapted for stage, film, and radio since its publication, and
has influenced other creative work in a wide range of disciplines.
After Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s mass surveillance in mid2013, sales of the novel increased by seven times in the following week.
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
George Orwell
press card portrait, 1943
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Eric Arthur Blair born on June 25, 1903, in India. Returns to England with his
mother and older sister when he is a year old.
Educated at St. Cyprian’s School and Eton. Due to financial concerns, he did
not attend university.
Serves in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, 1922-27.
In addition to his work as a writer, Orwell was also a teacher, bookseller,
journalist, broadcaster, and editor.
Adopts the pen name George Orwell in the early 1930s, initially to avoid
embarrassment to his family with the publication of Down and Out in Paris and
London.
Marries Eileen O’Shaughnessy (1936).
Serves in the Independent Labour Party contingent in the Spanish Civil War
(1937); he was wounded in the throat by a Fascist sniper. When the
Communists attempted to suppress other revolutionary parties, he was at risk
and escaped into France then returned to England.
Declared unfit for military service in June 1940 (due to recurring bronchitis),
but joins the Home Guard.
Nineteen Eighty-Four published (1949).
Dies of pulmonary tuberculosis (21 January 1950).
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
Michael Gene Sullivan (adaptation)
Michael Gene Sullivan is a theatre professional who has worked as an actor, singer,
and director; he has also appeared in film and television and has performed
throughout the world. He is the resident playwright for the San Francisco Mime
Troupe and a regular blogger on Huffingtonpost.com. His adaptation of 1984
premiered at Los Angeles’s Actors Gang Theatre under the direction of Tim Robbins,
and has since toured to Europe, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and
across the United States. For more about Michael and his life and artistic partner
Velina Brown, see http://www.michaelgenesullivan.com/.
Quotes
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not
want to hear.”
George Orwell, from his proposed preface to Animal Farm (not published until
1972)
“Political language—and with variations this is true of all political parties, from
Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language” (1945)
“Here is a study in pessimism unrelieved, except by the thought that, if a man can
conceive ‘1984,’ he can also will to avoid it.”
Orwell’s publisher Fredric Warburg on reading the novel
“This is the infrastructure for an Orwellian police state. It must be shut down!”
AT&T technician Mark Klein, who revealed the
NSA’s installation of equipment in a secret room in AT&T’s San Francisco
office. Quoted in Dragnet Nation.
“A few have become acquainted with Orwell’s 1984; because it is both difficult to
obtain and dangerous to possess, it is known only to certain members of the Inner
Party. Orwell fascinates them through his insight into details they know well, and
through his use of Swiftian satire. Such a form of writing is forbidden by the New
Faith because allegory, by nature manifold in meaning, would trespass beyond the
prescriptions of socialist realism and the demands of the censor. Even those who know
Orwell only by hearsay are amazed that a writer who never lived in Russia should have
so keen a perception into its life.”
Polish poet/essayist Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind (published 1953)
“The war was over, but rationing and deprivation continued and were harder to bear.
These were the years when Orwell was writing Nineteen Eighty-Four and
understanding the value of the two-minute hate. There was a great deal of grumbling,
to which Patty tried not to add. The first months of 1947 were the coldest she had
ever known, and the shortage of fuel for heating made everything worse. She suffered
terribly from chilblains.”
From Jo Walton’s novel, My Real Children (2014); the quote is from a chapter
set in Oxford 1946-49.
Resources
[see the Wikipedia links for George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-four noted above for a
range of biographical and critical material]
Books
Julia Angwin. Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World
of Relentless Surveillance. NY: Times Books, Henry Hold and Company LLC, 2014.
Glenn Greenwald. No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S.
Surveillance State. NY: Metropolitan Books, 2014.
Christopher Hitchens. Why Orwell Matters. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
Online
Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”
http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language
And some recent commentary on the above:
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/03/george_orwell_was_not_a_language_fascist_why
_we_keep_misinterpreting_his_words/
Pro Rata dramaturgy observer Gina Musto reflects on the script and the novel as she
reads them over May’s Memorial Day weekend:
http://martinfreemanisnotahedgehog.blogspot.com/2014/05/dystopia-now.html
A few bits of trivia
A model for The Chestnut Tree?
When Orwell spent time in Paris, he included the Closerie de Lilas in his rounds; this
restaurant/bar has an extensive history in the worlds of art and literature. See the
following website and click on “history”:
http://www.closeriedeslilas.fr/
“Room 101, which arouses such fear, is one of Orwell’s private jokes. It was the
number of the room where BBC Eastern Service Committee meetings were held at 55
Portland Place and these Orwell was required to attend. To the last Orwell retained a
sense of humour.” [Orwell worked for the BBC from 1941-43.] —from Peter Davison,
George Orwell: A Literary Life
Brave New World is often compared with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1948), since they each offer a view of a dystopian future. Cultural critic Neil
Postman spelled out the difference in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to
Death: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley
feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no
one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of
information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be
reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be
concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of
irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared
we would become a trivial culture. ... In short, Orwell feared that what we
fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”
[posted on The Writer’s Almanac, 26 July 2014—Huxley’s birthday]
Some Issues and questions to consider about 1984
George Orwell wrote his novel in part as a response to political issues in his
own day, including the Stalinist purges in the USSR. What dangers in today’s
world does the play highlight?
What examples of “newspeak” might you find in the daily paper or on news
websites today?
How does the structure of Winston Smith’s world reinforce the power of
government? What are the various means of control that are used?
What is the significance of Winston’s dreams in the play? What do they mean to
him? How do they affect the party members?
Why is Winston Smith so important to the Party? Why is he so important to
O’Brien?
In what different ways does their interrogation of Winston affect the four party
members?
What is in your Room 101?
What hope, if any, do you see for the world of Oceania as presented in this
play?
1949, 1984, and today: is Big Brother watching you?
August 2014 Wired interview with Edward Snowden
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/edward-snowden/
July 18, 2014 Guardian interview with Edward Snowden
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/17/edward-snowden-videointerview?CMP=fb_gu
Pew Research Internet Project Report (May & July 2014)
http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/05/14/internet-of-things/
http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/07/03/net-threats/
Big Brother at work (June 2014)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/technology/workplace-surveillance-sees-goodand-bad.html
Minnesota activist fights for privacy (June 2014)
http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/264115431.html
First amendment issues: Wikipedia founder on the 1st anniversary of the release of
NSA files (includes video link to opening statement by Stephen Fry) (June 2014):
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/07/jimmy-wales-uk-first-amendmentwhistleblowers
UK head of security says mass surveillance of social media is permitted by UK law
(June 2014):
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/mass-surveillance-social-mediapermitted-uk-law-charles-farr
PrisonPlanet article about “behaviometrics” (May 2011)
http://www.prisonplanet.com/new-behaviometrics-technology-allows-governmentto-know-what-youre-thinking.html
Frontline interview with AT&T technician Mark Klein, who revealed NSA’s installation
of a secret room in AT&T’s San Francisco office (January 2007)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/interviews/klein.html
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
NSA whistleblowers
Bill Binney: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(U.S._intelligence_official)
Kirk Wiebe:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid
=74&jumival=11458
Thomas Drake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Andrews_Drake
From Glenn Greenwald’s No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S.
Surveillance State.
“Over the years, I’ve given many speeches about how surveillance changes human
behavior, highlighting studies showing that people who know they are being watched
are more confined, more cautious about what they say, less free.” (p. 38)
“[Edward Snowden] wasn’t the first person I’d heard claiming video games had been
instrumental in shaping their worldview. Years earlier, I might have scoffed, but I’d
come to accept that, for Snowden’s generation, they played no less serious a role in
molding political consciousness, moral reasoning, and an understanding of one’s place
in the world than literature, television, and film. They, too, often present complex
moral dilemmas and provoke contemplation, especially for people beginning to
question what they’ve been taught.
“Snowden’s early moral reasoning—drawn from work that formed, as he said ‘a
model for who we want to become and why’—had evolved into serious adult
introspection about ethical obligations and psychological limits. ‘What keeps a person
passive and compliant,’ he explained, ‘is fear of repercussions, but once you let go of
your attachment to things that don’t ultimately matter—money, career, physical
safety—you can overcome that fear.’” (p. 46)
“The Obama administration had waged what people across the political spectrum
were calling an unprecedented war on whistle-blowers. The president, who had
campaigned on a vow to have the ‘most transparent administration in history,’
specifically pledging to protect whistle-blowers, whom he hailed as ‘noble’ and
‘courageous,’ had done exactly the opposite.
“Obama’s administration has prosecuted more government leakers under the
Espionage Act of 1917—a total of seven—than all previous administrations in US history
combined: in fact, more than double that total.” (p. 50)
“Taken in its entirety, the Snowden archive led to an ultimately simple conclusion:
the US government had built a system that has as its goal the complete elimination of
electronic privacy worldwide. Far from hyperbole, that is the literal, explicitly stated
aim of the surveillance state: to collect, store, monitor, and analyze all electronic
communication by all people around the globe. The agency is devoted to one
overarching mission: to prevent the slightest piece of electronic communications from
evading its systemic grasp.” (p. 94)
“Perhaps the most famous formulation of what privacy means and why it is so
universally and supremely desired was offered by US Supreme Court Justice Louis
Brandeis in the 1928 case Olmstead v. U.S.: ‘The right to be left alone [is] the most
comprehensive of rights, and the right mot valued by a free people.’ The value of
privacy, he wrote, ‘is much broader in scope’ than mere civic freedoms. It is, he said
fundamental:
The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable
to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man’s
spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only
a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in
material things. They sought to protect Americans in their believs, their
thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against
the Government, the right to be alone. (p.172)”
“Invoking George Orwell’s 1984 is something of a cliché, but the echoes of the world
about which he warned in the NSA’s surveillance state are unmistakable: both rely on
the existence of a technological system with the capacity to monitor every citizen’s
actions and words. The similarity is denied by the surveillance champions—we’re not
always being watched, they say—but that argument misses the point. In 1984, citizens
were not necessarily monitored at all times; in fact, they had no idea whether they
were ever actually being monitored. But the state had the capability to watch them
at any time. It was the uncertainty and possibility of ubiquitous surveillance that
served to keep everyone in line.” (p. 174)
George Orwell and his son Richard
Photo: Vernon Richard http://writingasiplease.wordpress.com/tag/richard-horatio-blair/
Winston Smith “believed that he had been born in 1944 or 1945 . . . ” Richard Blair
[adopted son of Orwell and his wife Eileen] was born May 14, 1944. It is not difficult
to guess that Orwell, in 1984, was imagining a future for his son’s generation, a world
he was not so much wishing upon them as warning against. He was impatient with
predictions of the inevitable, he remained confident in the ability of ordinary people
to change anything, if they would. It is the boy’s smile, in any case, that we return
to, direct and radiant, proceeding out of an unhesitating faith that the world, at the
end of the day, is good, and that human decency, like parental love, can always be
taken for granted—a faith so honorable that we can almost imagine Orwell, and
perhaps even ourselves, for a moment anyway, swearing to do whatever must be done
to keep it from ever being betrayed.
From Thomas Pynchon’s foreword to the centennial edition of 1984