Review: IMMERSIVE 1984, Hackney Town Hall

Watching this reboot of Immersive 1984, a thought comes to mind: if, as we’re constantly being informed, we’re all living in the post-privacy, post-truth and post-politics world foretold in 1984, aren’t we already inside an immersive version of George Orwell’s seminal book?

Those looking for some bone-chilling theatre ahead of Halloween could do far worse than this engaging work. The original production, though filled with fine performances, was more of a milquetoast affair in comparison and ran for three months last year at Hackney Town Hall. While the venue has stayed the same, there’s a new cast and creative team led by Irish director Jack Reardon and the two-time Offie winner lighting designer Ben Jacobs. Dan Light, whose video design was the best thing about Sarah Snook’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, returns and all three play a pivotal role in creating a far darker piece than was seen in 2023.

Rather than rehash the plot from end to end, writer and executive producer Adam Taub sensibly focuses our attention on select moments, cranking up the tension subtly until the final scene. The opening sees us sat in the building’s atrium while two women sing the hits of Simon & Garfunkel and praise Big Brother and the Party at regular intervals. A conspicuously fervent man (a convincing Mark Kitto) shuffles through the audience whispering to us that what we are seeing is a farce and that we are all being lied to. The setting becomes clearer soon after: a charming O’Brien (Dominic Carter) welcomes us to the Ministry of Truth so that we can begin our induction process. In order to assess our suitability, we are asked to witness the growing illegal relationship between Winston (Joe Anderson) and Julia (Neetika Knight) and then see up close what happens in Room 101 to those who betray Big Brother.

Reardon brings two key experiences to bear here having worked on a Dublin revival of John Tiffany’s vampire horror Let The Right One In and the immersive Overlook which, if it hadn’t been derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, would have explored military life inside a former army barracks. Despite being mostly set in the Hall’s immense atrium, he finds clever ways to make Immersive 1984’s scenes between the lovers unusually intimate and the final torture scene a masterpiece of claustrophic drama. Jacobs’ crepuscular lighting sets the tone, pulling us into the well known story and, with Light’s projections, adding layers of connection. The overall sense that we are somehow all complicit in what we are watching is made dangerously palpable in a last-minute twist.

Carter is probably best known as Game Of Thrones’ cowardly and corrupt Ser Janos Slynt but, as the government official O’Brien, he shows a very different side. His speech in the council chamber is paced perfectly, a calm call to arms insidiously inspiring those present to join the Ministry and its war on “thought criminals”. There is no questionnaire to go through like the 2023 run but a brief Q&A brings home the pervasive surveillance that underlies the organisation’s reach; a more physical reminder is provided when we leave the chamber to see a bloody and bruised Kitto stood parroting the party line.

Rather than showing the beginnings of their relationship through video as before, this time around a live enactment of the ill-fated pair’s story is played out under the harsh glare of overhead lights and surrounded by party members carrying video cameras. The moving direction fleshes out the differences between the passionate Julia and the more cautious Winston. A recent graduate of Mountview Academy, Knight is superb in her role; when the Records man throws away a piece of precious real chocolate that has been gifted to him, the disgusted and angry look on his partner’s face speaks volumes.

O’Brien narrates the events we see, from the first signs of intimacy six months ago, the couple's capture three months later and their present imprisonment. The scenes between Carter and Anderson are utterly absorbing and Reardon mercilessly shows Winston’s torture, his head dunked into a bath attached to a battery. Partly down to the writing, Anderson’s performance doesn’t always ring true as the emotional centre of this show but Carter’s demonic turn is a towering performance that never threatens to slip over the edge into parody. 

Taub has declared his intent to return to this work in order to put together something which is “more visceral and more challenging for the audience”. There’s certainly no holding back in that ambition, especially towards the end and this Immersive 1984 is certainly a double-plus-good leap forward from its initial outing. 

Immersive 1984 continues until 22 December.

Photo credit: Maggie Jupe

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