Pure Expression today announce the return of 1984 to Hackney Town Hall following their 3 month sell out run in 2023, with a brand new cast and creative team including Jack Reardon and Ben Jacobs will be running at Hackney Town Hall with previews from the 1 October running until the 22 December with press night on the 17 October.
The 12 week run will be directed by Jack Reardon using a script adapted from George Orwell’s novel by Adam Taub. It is returning after their sell out first run, multiple 4 and 5 star reviews and Partnership of the Year nomination from the Museum and Heritage Awards.
Adam Taub, the Executive Producer of Pure Expression said: “This is a new iteration of the show and far more ambitious. We have a brand new cast and creative team that have created a bold new vision for the show. There will be innovative digital mapping, video projection and AV work from creators who have recently worked in the West End, including the Haymarket’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. This production of 1984 is more visceral and more challenging for the audience. Why do we continually return to 1984? Because it has never lost its relevance. Because its warning of a dystopian future is one that we can all too easily imagine today.”
The show will be lit by Ben Jacobs, winner of the 2022 Offie award for best Lighting Designer with Salome, with Video and AV from Dan Light, whose video design was lauded in Sarah Snook’s West End performance of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Munotida Chinyanga, sound designer and Ruth Badila, set and props designer, complete the creative team.
Jack Reardon, the Director of the show said: “Open your computer, search the news, scroll through Instagram, post on Twitter – what has the algorithm decided is best for you today? Is it real? Does it matter? Once you believe it to be true, isn’t that what counts? It doesn’t take much to equate Orwell’s 1984 to our own 2024. Whether it’s news coverage, the constant awareness of phone, web or surveillance cameras or the increasing volatility of global politics. 1984 remains as iconic today as when it was first published, only now we don’t have to look far to imagine Orwell’s dystopian world. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
When Adam invited me to be the director for the return, I immediately looked forward to inviting audiences into Hackney Town Hall and into a new world of ‘vigilance, eternal vigilance’. This production aims to give audiences an insight into what surveillance truly means using the latest techniques in AV technology in an entirely original and innovative way. This is a site-specific, multimedia approach to the text, colliding Orwell’s world with our very own. The creative team that Adam and I have put together want to take the text to extraordinary new dimensions.”
