Available in six languages
1984
By George Orwell
Adapted for the stage by Michael Gene Sullivan
"Brilliant."
Arianna Huffington
"Stunning!" "Tripleplusgood!" "Incontestably superior to the 2017 Broadway production!"
Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal
"Vivid, unsettling... a masterwork of novelistic concision."
American Theatre Magazine
Theare.love (Kiev, Ukraine)
"Sullivan’s stage adaptation of Orwell gives us a rare opportunity to see our political world today for what it really is. “1984” illuminates our present political crisis. Don’t miss it!"
Theatrius
"A really good playwright knows that the story he or she tells must have its own mark and its own shape. This is especially true when adapting a classic tale. If you hew too carefully to the original work, it risks being a pale shadow that adds nothing to the story. Thankfully, Michael Gene Sullivan knows this, and his adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 is its own creation, theatrical and compelling. He doesn’t simply engage in a linear staging of the book, editing out scenes and choosing dialog. Instead, he creates his own structure and changes the form of the original story. By taking this freedom from the novel, he is true to its events and themes, but transforms it into a highly theatrical piece."
Encore Michigan
"Sullivan's tightly-crafted, condensed script demonstrates an arresting approach to storytelling, whilst throughout retaining both the relentless clausrtaphobia of the original work and its shattering emotional impact."
Glasgow Theatre Blog (Scotland)
“Sullivan, best known as a stalwart of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, wrote the play 20 years ago, and it’s been staged all around the world already, but it definitely feels like a red alert for society right now.”
Mercury News
"You don't just watch to observe, you become implicated - as if sitting at Orwell's two-way telescreen to watch how long it takes Big Brother to break a man."
World Socialist Web Site
"Finally, a stage version of 1984 that does justice to Orwell's original novel."
Lavender.com (Milwaukee)
"This is not your father's George Orwell."
DailyBulletin.com
Available now from Playscripts.com
For information about producing
George Orwell's 1984
please contact
Florence Rees at
Florence.Rees@amheath.com
AM Heath and Co. Ltd.
By permission of the Estate of the late Sonia Bronwell Orwell.
For a calendar of performances of 1984 click here
exactly how it should be."
The South China Morning Post
“To encounter the story as theater, as in Michael Gene Sullivan’s harrowing stage adaption, is to be reminded that George Orwell’s masterpiece doesn’t live merely in the realm of brainsploding theory. (It) prickles the skin, pinches nerves and lodges in the viscera… the show makes you heavier, then lighter.”
San Francisco Chronicle
"The first element in favor of the production is the excellent adaptation... Sullivan extracts the essence of the original novel without betraying it, and while he takes advantage of the more dramaturgic aspects of it, and he leaves a lot of Orwell for those who haven’t read it."
Recomena.cat (Barcelona, Spain)
"Riveting, frightening, and provocative."
Deseret Times (Salt Lake City)
"The pace never slows, except to take a needed exhale during intermission." "This version of 1984 effectively argues that Orwell's messages remain as relevant as they were in 1949 perhaps even more so."
Los Angeles Downtown News
For my 1984 blog click here