1984
By George Orwell
Adapted to stage by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan
By George Orwell
Adapted to stage by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan
Exec
Director - Will Sedgley
Producer - Amy Vyskocil-Flint
Special Thanks
Tommy Haines
Mina Dodd
Prod
Set Designer - Daisy Dickinson
Lighting Designer - Jack Walker
Sound Designer - Edison Juniper
Costume, Hair & Make-Up - Lilianna Pilato
Stage & Props Managers - Grace Redfern & Ruby Large
Fight Coordinator - Kayla Vicente
Intimacy Coordinator - Holly Roberts
Photographer - Ella Tomlin
Videographer - Alex Cottrell
What was once seen as fiction is now reality. Winston Smith starts a diary to fight against Big Brother. There is no way of knowing whether he is being watched at any given moment. How often Big Brother watches any particular individual is guesswork, it is even conceivable that they watch everybody all the time. Winston's thoughtcrime cannot be concealed forever. Sooner or later he is bound to be caught. No one can ever trust anything in Big Brother's Room 101.
1984 appeared on the autumn line-up as the week 9 weekend show, with performances from November 29th - December 1st, 2025.
This was my first time producing for a larger "weekend show" in Drama Society. Although producer in title, the role moreso aligns itself to company stage managing. My responsibilities included organising auditions and recall schedules, scheduling rehearsals/booking rehearsal rooms, working with the production team to ensure we were to budget, filling in risk assessments, and being another pair of eyes in the rehearsal room. Due to the heavy topics of this show, alongside our show mentors, I was a key contact for actors and production team during the rehearsal and production week process. I worked closely with the director to create audition/recall/prod pack materials, and plan out rehearsals. A lot of time was put into plotting these rehearsals as the play was non-linear and had no scenes/acts to naturally pace it.
1984 proved itself challenging in terms of keeping up with the many production elements present in the show. Many meetings were scheduled between the exec team (the director and I) and specific prod team members to ensure all was done ahead of production week. This was specifically the case for videography, as we planned to have a TV display lots of media for the show. As we had a limit of 9hrs of rehearsal per week (due to Drama Society guidelines), filming for these displays had to be organised alongside scene rehearsals. All in all, despite the stress of production week, the show came together in the end and ended up being the one out of seven other weekend shows to win the DramaSoc award of "Most Visually Impressive Weekend Show".