Theatre Royal in Winchester production of 1984 :: Drama

Theatre Royal in Winchester production of '1984' 1984 Evaluation =============== On the 19th November 2002 myself, and a group of year eleven students went to the Theatre Royal in Winchester to watch a play named '1984'. The plays main theme was about a society being treated unfairly and not being able to have rights or individuality. It showed people being extremely restricted on what they could do both physically and mentally. Watching it, it made me feel fortunate to have the rights I have and that I am not constrained on what I can do. The director wanted you when watching, to feel uncomfortable and distressed as you were watching one individual being tortured. The more torture shown, the more privileged I felt to possess the rights I do have. A variety of techniques were used to enforce the powerful message this play presented. At the beginning, a group of soldiers pointed at the audience and shouted 'Die Die' continuously, which made you feel threatened and also at the same time involved within the play. The set was quite basic yet effective. All the scenes featured two large wooden walls, which were moved for different scenes. These walls were used as a technique to change scene. When a new scene was started the walls would be spun round to illustrate a new scene, which was very effective. Throughout the play short videos were shown for a variety of reasons. These included: emphasizing a point within the play, to give new information to the audience or to add to the dramatic effect of a particular scene. Various lighting techniques were used including a spotlight. A spotlight makes you focus on one particular part of the stage where usually a scene is being acted. A spotlight can add tension and increased dramatic effect to a scene, for example when soliloquies are used. An additional lighting method used was to flash bright lights at the audience to illustrate a scene change. This was very effective as afterwards a new scene was taking place. As well as lighting techniques, the props used were very successful in making the scene more exciting and attention grabbing. One prop used was a counterfeit electric chair. In this scene the main character was being tortured using the electric chair. The smoke and sounds the chair was making made the scene even more dramatic and made you sympathise with him even more. The main characters included a man named Winston, and a woman called Julia who has already had already a couple of illegal love affairs. Both characters were deprived of their rights and wanted the same thing, freedom.