Review: Julia. 1984 (Summerhall)

A ruinous reimaging of Orwell’s world

For all the merits of George Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel 1984, it has one major flaw: Julia. Lover and partner-in-crime to protagonist Winston, she is defined as much by her lust as she is by her rebellion. Her entire sexual liberation is a protest against the establishment, rather than for her own gratification. Julia. 1984, a newly written piece from British-Slavic company Within Theatre, has the opportunity to change that – to give Julia more depth, more humanity, and an arc of her own. At the same time, it acts as a spiritual successor to their incredibly successful adaptation of 1984 from last year’s fringe, which drew shocking comparisons between Orwell's words and the words of Slavic politicians.

Photo Credit: Alina Saffron

We pick up in the Ministry of Love, in a room with O’Brien (an agent of the Thought Police) and Julia, with Winston being tortured out of sight. The movement of the opening moments, directed by Sasha Plaige, has everything that made their last outing so uncomfortable and yet remarkable. You wince at the sight of it, at how malicious yet casual Michael Tcherepashenets behaves as O’Brien. He adopts the persona of a twisted TV show presenter – upbeat, confident, and dangerous. You feel on edge just being in the same room as him. But as the performance goes on, and the story starts to deviate, he begins to soften at the edges. In fact, the whole world does.

When Julia, played by Sofia Barysevich, leaves the Ministry of Love, she goes to stay with her sister Emma. With the eye of Big Brother looking over them, they can’t speak freely, but what they can say is already more than fans of the novel will expect. Julia feels no fear in confronting her sister, retains enough of her rebellious spirit to ask why Emma turned her in, and Emma can even tell her of changes to the law that have taken place in her absence. In a few short lines, they undermine the authority of Big Brother, the ruthlessness of the Ministry of Love, and the very concept of doublethink. To the uninitiated, it might sound like I am making a mountain out of a molehill, but Orwell’s dystopia is dependent on its totality in order to be plausible.

Julia goes on to join the thought police herself, keeping O’Brien and the audience on their toes about which side she is on. To Barysevich’s credit, she does add some depth to the character, but her motivations within a scene are often unclear. There’s an aimlessness that is out of place within the story being told. The focus on storytelling in itself comes as a surprise, given that two of Within Theatre’s strengths with 1984 were that it was less concerned with story than with dramaturgy, and less bothered with character than it was with politics. At one point in Julia. 1984 O’Brien encourages us to clap, shout, and even dance to celebrate his meeting with Big Brother while henchmen fire bubble guns. If we do, we feel complicit. If we don’t, we feel uncooperative. Challenging theatre etiquette like that shows how much potential the company has to create memorable and effective performances, but without the wit, commentary, or even loyalty to the source material, it all falls flat. Two stars.

Julia. 1984 will play at Summerhall at 16:35 until the 11th of August