Starring reed Birney & Olivia Wilde

George Orwell's scarily prescient masterpiece comes to Broadway, in a new stage adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan. Creating a nightmarish vision of suppression, surveillance and the all-powerful 'Big Brother', 1984 is one of the landmark texts of the 20th Century. Its story centers on civil servant Winston Smith, who decides to fight back against a totalitarian government which seeks to strip away every one of his liberties. Tony nominee Tom Sturridge (Orphan) stars as Winston, and the cast also includes Tony winner Reed Birney (The Humans) and Hollywood actress Olivia Wilde, who is making her Broadway debut.

Transferring from the UK, where it has had four acclaimed runs, this new 1984 is a startlingly staged production, employing projections of live video feeds from cameras on stage and a set that is wholly transformed over the run time. It also incorporates the book's appendix into the show, meaning the action is framed by a book club in 2050, who are discussing the veracity of the novel itself.

What is 1984 about?

Winston Smith is a civil servant who lives in a Britain that has been ripped apart by war and revolution. It's a country now ruled over the The Party, and at their head, the omnipotent leader Big Brother, who keeps watch over the population with an invasive surveillance network, and seeks to outlaw free thought itself by instigating a language known as 'doublethink'.

Taking a tremendous risk, Winston begins making small rebellions against the system, such as recording his thoughts in a diary. But as his acts of defiance grow more severe, Big brother comes ever closer to discovering his treachery.