Northern Ballet: 1984

I first read 1984 when I was around 15.

And I just really connected with the main character

in this kind of journey against the system

and all of the different,

sort of, concepts within the book.

And they just seemed very relevant to me at the time.

Ever since, it's kind of been in the back of my mind as one of the books

that I want to, sort of, reimagine for the stage.

So the process of translating it from, sort of, page to stage,

really, is a very lengthy one.

It starts with me, you know,

knowing the book inside out

and then using that and staying very loyal to it -

sort of imagining in my adaptation what would work scene by scene,

and how to tell this quite, you know,

structured, difficult story, really.

And so from those... I call it, like, my narrative action script...

So once I've got that script,

it's about working with the different collaborators.

So first, it's working with composers.

So Alex Baranowski and myself would sit down

and he would just go with, "What does the world of 1984 sound like?"

And then once we have that musical world, it's about

creating a visual world.

And so once you come to the first day of rehearsals,

in my mind, there's this musical and physical world created.

And it's about, sort of, layering the physical script,

the physical choreography of the action

and the characters within that world.

I mean, my ambition is to tell this story without words.

And it's a very cinematic quality to the production.

And the kind of focus of the story is really helped

by capturing it on screen.

And so if I was to speak to an audience,

all I would ask is that they were very open

to seeing this modern classic in a different way.

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