DIRECTOR'S NOTE

In December I committed to not taking on any more projects due to an international move coming up; I’d get through Shrekk and would be done. I almost immediately broke this commitment by getting involved in a murder mystery to raise money for Rhino Charge, but obviously when that was finished and Shrek was done, no more! Then Dan reached out about getting involved in 1984, and here we are…

In my defense this has been one of my favourite novels for about 30 years and sparked my several year-long obsession as a teenager with reading everything Orwell had written (frankly I must have been insufferable); even so, I apologise to friends, family, coworkers and the people who look after me, because my projects inevitably become theirs. Although I was already very familiar with the book, I think everyone involved in this production has come to realise how relevant the book still is. In Adrian’s words:

In an age when populist politics and fake news make distinguishing fact from fiction harder than ever, Orwell’s seminal work, once banned in Kenya, is more relevant today than ever. This production reminds us how easily freedoms are lost and that the truth, and what we believe to be true, are not always the same thing.

In light of the relevance to our world today, we’d like to dedicate the production to Alexei Navalny, who did not betray his Julia. Alexei was and an anti-corruption activist who for a decade led Russia’s increasingly cowed opposition to the regime of President Vladamir Putin. After surviving an attempt to poison him with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020, he returned to Russia following his discharge from a German hospital, despite knowing he faced immediate arrest and probably death. For Alexei and his wife Yulia (the Russian form of Julia), standing up for his beliefs was more important than his life. He was imprisoned in a bare, cold cell in a remote Siberian prison and this did not break his resolve. On 16 February 2024, the Russian prison service announced his death, few people outside Russia believe he was not murdered.

Whenever Alexei appeared in court he would shape his hands into a heart to symbolize his love for Yulia, and his belief that love would eventually win out against hate and bring down the regime. Others arrested in Russia adopted the symbol and used it when appearing at their own trials, although it has now been labelled as a “gesture of extremism” and is too dangerous to do for most.

Yulia Navalny continues her husband’s struggle, from exile, and continues to cherish her belief that love will conquer all. Only time will tell if Orwell’s pessimistic view or the Navalnies’ optimistic one will triumph in the end.