1984
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
The Actors’ Gang
Through December 7
When George Orwell wrote 1984, he was responding to the totalitarian movements that swept Germany and Russia under Hitler and Stalin respectively. Published in 1949, the book was intended as a caution to those who mistakenly kept faith in the promise of Soviet communism. The novel gained reputation here in the U.S. as the pitch-black portrait of a future dystopia, a warning of what our society might become if we did not work to value and preserve our rights as citizens of a free republic, however imperfect it might be.
For most Americans at the time, the notion of our nation transforming into an authoritarian monolith intent on annihilating the mind, soul and even the sexuality of the individual seemed a distant one. That’s changed over the past 40 years, as technology and the Internet have furnished tools to bad actors (among good ones, of course), who have used them to propagandize and mislead. This propensity for abuse has been intensifying in this age of Trump, with its fake news and alternate facts, and a sizable plurality of Americans willing to accept both.
Working from a script by Michael Gene Sullivan, The Actors’ Gang has been staging an adaptation of 1984 in various locales around the globe since 2006. The current production features director Tim Robbins undertaking the role of O’Brien, the story’s cold-blooded interrogator who works, on behalf of Big Brother, to quash the mind and spirit of the hapless Winston (Will Thomas McFadden), himself a former State employee in the rewriting-of-history department. Winston has been apprehended for daring to think for himself and for the verboten act of falling in love.
Staged in the round, the first two-thirds of the production depict Winston interacting with four Party Members who read aloud from his incriminating diary and alternate between their role as stern accusers and their depiction of characters from the story. These include Winston (Tom Syzmanski) in flashback and Winston’s lover Julia (understudy Guebri VanOver), his partner in rebellion and romance.
These scenes bear the imprint of the Actors’ Gang agitprop style — they are fast-paced, strident and larger than life. At the same time, they include a lot of exposition, engendered by readings from Winston’s diary. Although the actors, Bob Turton in particular, do a fair job of individualizing the personages they portray (Turton uses lots of twitchy eccentricities that appear to be his hallmark) there’s little emotional depth. Done well, this stylistic choice is effective and can be electrifying; here, it detracts rather than propels Orwell’s urgent message about the price of dehumanization — especially when juxtaposed against the searing inhumanities (children in cages, dead Syrian babies, slaughtered Kurds) that our own government is now perpetuating in real time.
Things do tighten and intensify in Act 2 when Winston comes face to face with O’Brien, the undercover operative whom he believed to be a leader of the resistance but who is actually a powerful cog in the repressive machine of the State. As O’Brien, Robbins is chilling as he smugly and heartlessly strips Winston of his last shred of dignity and hope. In this cathartic confrontation, the production finally achieves the visceral impact it strives for.
The Actors’ Gang, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m., Nov. 10 & Nov. 24; through Dec. 7. www.TheActorsGang.com or (310) 838-4264. Running time: two hours and 15 minutes with an intermission.
