Since it was first published in 1949, George Orwell’s iconic
1984 has inspired leading radio producers, theatremakers,
musicians and film directors to create their own visions
of life under the baleful, beady eye of Big Brother.
America’s NBC was the first company to broadcast a
radio adaptation, which aired soon after the bookitself was
published in 1949. Another American network, CBS, was the
first to air a small screen version of the novel in 1953.
In the UK, the BBC aired a celebrated version of the story
in its popular Sunday Night Play series in December 1954.
The live-to-air production (incorporating a number of pre-
recorded inserts) starred Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasance
and Yvonne Mitchell. The broadcast proved controversial,
however, with five members of the UK Parliament tabling
a motion decrying, “the tendency, evident in recent British
Broadcasting Corporation television programmes, notably
on Sunday evenings, to pander to sexual and sadistic
tastes.” The BritishDaily Expressnewspaper reported that
one viewer, a 42-year-old woman from Kent, collapsed
and died from shock during the broadcast.
The first Hollywood feature film version of 1984 was
released two years later, strictly speaking as a B-picture,
starring Edmond O’Brien and Michael Redgrave. The best-
known movie version, however, dates from 1984 itself;
a powerfully bleak film starring the late John Hurt and
featuring the last film performance of Richard Burton.
In music, Maestro Lorin Maazel composed and Robert
Lepage directed a 2005 opera of 1984 , a production that
earned scathing reviews. Writing in theGuardian, Andrew
Clements savaged the production for its “wretchedness and
lack of musical worth.” 1984 has also been investigated in
dance form in a classical contemporary ballet choreographed
by Jonathan Watkins for Britain’s Northern Ballet, while
Brisbane company Shake & Stir toured Australia in 2014 with
apunchytheatricalprécisof 1984 featuring live rats.BACK TO THE FUTURE
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KATE MULVANY O