Duncan Macmillan's stage version of George Orwell's 1984, which previously enjoyed two West End runs at the Playhouse Theatre, is to return there for a third season, beginning performances June 14 prior to an official opening June 28 for a 12-week season through September 3.
It returns to London following an international tour. Originally co-produced by Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and London's Almeida Theatre, the show will have a West End season produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and Eleanor Lloyd Productions. Casting is still to be announced.
This 1984 has now been seen internationally by over a quarter of a million people. First published in 1949, the stage version shows, according to press materials, how Orwell's vision is as relevant now as ever as it portrays a world of perpetual war, pervasive government surveillance and incessant public mind-control. Its ideas have become our ideas, and Orwell’s fiction is often said to be our reality.
Macmillan's plays include People, Places and Things (nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Play, which opened at the National Theatre and is now running at the West End's Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End); Every Brilliant Thing for Paines Plough (seen on tour in the U.K., New York, Australia and New Zealand); and Lungs for Paines Plough and at Schaubühne in Berlin, directed by Katie Mitchell.
The production is directed by Robert Icke and Macmillan with Daniel Raggett. Icke just won the Olivier Award for his production of Oresteia, which transferred from the Almeida to the West End's Trafalgar Studios. His other Almeida productions include Uncle Vanya, The Fever and Mr. Burns. He will make his National Theatre debut directing The Red Barn at the Lyttleton Theatre in October.
The creative team also includes Chloe Lamford (sets and costumes), Natasha Chivers (lighting), Tom Gibbons (sound) and Tim Reid (video design).
To book tickets, contact the Playhouse box office on 0844 871 7631 or the Almeida Theatre box office on 020 7359 4404, or visit 1984ThePlay.co.uk.
