Big Brother is watching you!

The slogan from George Orwell’s dystopian tragedy 1984 is perhaps the book’s best-known line. But in Creation Theatre’s innovative production of the classic tale of authoritarianism, we really are being watched.

Set in the basement of the University of Oxford’s minimalist Mathematical Institute, the production is part play, part art installation.

The setting is hugely appropriate for a story weaved around issues of data gathering, surveillance and of agents of an autocratic state attempting to prove, without question, that 2+2=5.

It may be a beautiful postmodern building, designed on mathematical-architectural principles, but tonight it feels menacing, faceless and dehumanising – an effective dungeon for the sinister Ministry of Truth.

Instead of a stage, the action takes place on an area of shiny floor illuminated by strip lighting and surrounded by cameras, speakers and CCTV monitors. We are sat a few feet away – face to face with the screens, which flick between black and white images of the actors, the set and the Ministry’s glitchy fascistic logo.

It is all very unsettling. There’s an overriding sense of gloom and dread – that nothing good can come of this.

Orwell published 1984 in 1949 but Jonathan Holloway’s reboot feels frighteningly contemporary, and not just in the clothing, technology and dialogue.

References to Newspeak are ‘double plus’ relevant in this world not just of ‘alternative facts’ but in the language of political correctness, while the concept of the population paying for telescreens which spy on their owners while they entertain, are, arguably, part of life for all who own a mobile phone. Which is all of us. The performance is brutal and not for the easily shocked (nor children), but is exceptionally well performed.

A likeably human Winston Smith (Graeme Rose) and enigmatic Julia (Rochi Rampal) strip off completely for a steamy romp in the meadow. The action takes place off stage, but is caught on camera and screened – turning the beauty of their act into, for us, one of sordid prurient voyeurism. We become Big Brother, and it is most unsettling.

The second half carries this further with its unrelentingly dark torture session, complete with waterboarding, referencing modern interrogation techniques and, of course, rats. It all seems shockingly real and we are all complicit.

This is a bleak, dark and disquieting production, but an important one with deep truths about our world, and where we are heading. As the Ministry would say: 'doubleplusgood'. Attendance really is ‘unoptional’ – anything else is a 'thoughtcrime'.

5/5

1984 is at the Mathematical Institute, Woodstock Road, Oxford until March 5. Go to creationtheatre.co.uk