'1984' Director Corey McMahon On How Orwell's Vision Of The Past Could Be Our Future

Since the 1949 publication of cautionary parable 1984, political moves impinging on the democratic freedoms of individuals have often been branded "Orwellian". Today, however, that adjective has seemingly been replaced by a new term: "Trumpian."

This substitution is more than just a matter of semantics. Orwell's dystopian vision of a future where authoritarianism and technology collude to oppress a nation's citizens on every level — even their thoughts — was inspired by the atrocities committed by the Nazis and later in Stalinist Russia, and the ominous ambitions those regimes harboured for the future. Likening Donald Trump — a scandal-wracked wannabe politico, whose fledgling tenure has been marred more by ham-fisted bluster than anything truly totalitarian - to Hitler or Stalin, might be deemed sensationalist. But much of the anxiety and outrage that has been provoked by the insurgent rise of populist rhetoric has been stoked not by deeds done, but by potential horrors yet to unfold.

Given how electrified these topics are in the minds of most thinking, feeling people in Western democracies, it's all but inevitable that Orwell's depiction of a world under the tyrannical yoke of legislated mind control should feel eerily prescient. What might have once been dismissed as the ramblings of conspiracy nutjobs, have now become oh so believable since the emergence of fugitive whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Indeed, we may very well be going about our daily lives in a society more manipulated by brainwashing and surveillance than anything Orwell ever foretold; Big Brother may already be watching.

This synergy isn't lost on director Corey McMahon, as he prepares the first Australian cast production of Robert Icke and Duncan MacMillan's blockbusting adaptation of 1984 for British theatre company Headlong, which has enjoyed global success since it opened in London around three years ago. Since then, it's been seen by more than 400,000 theatregoers worldwide, including several sold out houses during the 2015 Melbourne Festival, when the original British cast toured the show to Australia for the first time.

The production's connections to the political zeitgeist were already apparent when the show first premiered, but few of those involved could have predicted just how uncanny this parallel would become in the ensuing years. "When I was first approached about directing the Australian tour, any thought that Donald Trump would actually become President was laughable. At that point, the production was an adaptation of a narrative that had an ongoing relevance in terms of people's concerns about surveillance and austerity," McMahon recalls. "Then, of course, when Trump actually got into office, it suddenly felt like many people were reaching out to Orwell for answers. I think 1984 offered some level of understanding about what had happened, and how things might evolve."

McMahon shoulders a hefty responsibility in his role as the revival director of this production. Not only must he faithfully reproduce the calibre and focus of MacMillan and Icke's original staging, nurturing a similar world-class level of performance from his Australian cast, but he must also preserve the essence of Orwell's fiction, even as it strains towards our geopolitical reality. "There are challenges, but there's no point reinventing the wheel. The show already works so well - that's a real blessing," he explains. "My job is to honour what Robert and Duncan have created, but it's also important to step back from the work and question the choices they've made, and how I can communicate those ideas to the actors. It is fascinating to be part of this show at this point in time. I'm in awe of this production and the story that underpins it, and personally, in terms of my politics and what I like to see in the theatre and what I believe theatre should be doing, it's hugely rewarding." 

The total abolition of freedom of speech is a core theme in Orwell's narrative, and the resonance between this and the erosion of free and open reporting in our post-truth, "Fake News" era is striking. It's for this reason that McMahon sees theatre becoming perhaps the most valuable medium for challenging State suppression of truth, as the voices of journalists are stifled and undermined by political forces. "Trump's cards were on display from the get go really, in terms of how he viewed the media and his attitude towards being held accountable for his actions," McMahon suggests. "Maybe we've all been blindly hoping that things don't turn out to be how they are in Orwell's book. Of course, we're not there yet, but certainly, things are in motion that could conceivably reach that end point. It's fascinating for myself and the cast in a way, because we're in this bubble really - we've been in the rehearsal room and focused on serving the play and the vision of the creators of the show. But of course, none of us are immune to what's going on in the outside world, and regardless of what we do on stage, the audience will make their own connections between this story and current events."

Headlong presents 1984, 31 May — 10 Jun, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, 14 — 16 Jun, Lyric Theatre, QPAC, Brisbane, and 28 Jun — 28 Jul, Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney.