Threaded Order Chronological Order
| "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| Very gripping tale of what can happen if the Party takes over. Winston doesn't agree with Big Brother and he falls in love with Julia. He believes he's keeping his love of Julia and his disagreement with the Party secret. We see what happens. This condensed version of the book is very easy to follow. You may want earplugs towards the end of the show when the volume is turned way up during the more intense scenes. Show got a well-deserved standing ovation. Runs approx 1 hour 45 minutes no intermission. Exhilarating theater. And discount tickets are very easy to come by. In the Broadway show, all books are being destroyed & erased so that history no longer exists. Big Brother then becomes always right as there is no longer any history. Winston says in the show that "Every record has been destroyed...every statue and street and building has been renamed... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." This quote from the show parallels what happened today in Brooklyn and around the country. Go see this show! Excellent acting all around. But be warned it's not for children under the age of 13. Absolutely no late seating either. |
|
| reply to this message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 01:34 pm EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| I agree with the posters below that 8/16/17 is not an apt parallel with Orwell's book. However even though the book might have had its genesis in the 1930's and ENGSOC probably stands for English/Socialism the book has become a wider parable for any kind of authoritarian state power. And it's claimed by people across the political spectrum. | |
| reply to this message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: writerkev 06:31 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| You are seriously (intentionally?) misreading the meaning of the removal of statues that glorify the Confederacy when you equate it with Orwell's Big Brother. Lots of parallels to today, but that ain't one of 'em. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: MockingbirdGirl 01:36 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| In the Broadway show, all books are being destroyed & erased so that history no longer exists. Big Brother then becomes always right as there is no longer any history. Winston says in the show that "Every record has been destroyed...every statue and street and building has been renamed... Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." This quote from the show parallels what happened today in Brooklyn and around the country. Orwell was mirroring what happened in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when people who fell out of favor (like Trotsky) were literally wiped from history -- erased from photographs, deleted from archives and history books, and so forth. Last I checked, though, US history books and museums still mention the Civil War. History is secure. |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: schauspieler 12:43 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| I think you misunderstand Orwell's intent and are making a false equivalency. Most of the present day Confederate statues you refer to were erected during two periods: the late 19th and early 20th century when they were erected by the states and municipalities during the terror of Jim Crow and the founding of the KKK and were meant as symbols of white power over former slaves; and then again during the Civil rights era of the late 50's and early 60's as a reminder to African Americans and their allies that the spirit of the Confederacy was still a power to be reckoned with in the fight for equal rights. Removing the statues now is not an attempt to re-write or bury history in the sense that Orwell's totalitarian state seeks to do in order to hide the history of freedom and rebellion that threatens its existence. Rather they are being removed by freedom-loving people in a free society because they symbolize oppression. Their removal is a gesture of solidarity with African Americans whom these monuments were meant to intimidate. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Last Edit: Singapore/Fling 12:28 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 12:22 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - summertheater 11:53 pm EDT 08/16/17 | |
|
|
|
| I understand the sentiment that what we're seeing in our own society mirrors the story told on stage. There is also an argument, though, that our history is a continuously told story, and that all people who tell it shape the factual event (to the extent that they even know what that is) to create the narrative that share the lessons and model the values that they wish their society to reflect. What we might see in the removal of that plaque is a desire to re-contextualize how we reflect on slavery and the ways that it nearly broke this nation as a functional civic society, and may still do so. While a plaque has been removed, there isn't a larger attempt to erase the existence of this person or his life's work, but rather a consideration of how and where we wish to tell it... and how we choose to deal with the fact that we are all descendants of people who owned or were owned by other people. The plaque itself isn't being destroyed or thrown away - it's being archived, so that it may play a new role in history than it does today. And of course, this becomes even more interesting when we consider the fact that mounting the plaque in the first place was a narrative choice, and one not made until nearly 40 years after the actual historical event. The decision to place the plaque is as much a testament to a story that 1912 wanted to tell about itself and its history as it is to the actual war that Lee fought in. I see a different prominent parallel between our time and the play, which is at the level of our national government. When the President dismisses anything he doesn't like as "fake news", one can see an attempt to rewrite the present, erasing facts and events that might be inconvenient to the narrative that the President wants to believe in. In the aftermath of Charlottesville, I've been reading interviews with people in the Deep South who have readings of history that strike me as nearly perfectly inverted from what the factual record tells us of those events - at least the record as I understand it. I have impeccable sources for my history, but part of the brilliance of the "Fake News" meme is that is destabilizes the providers of the historical record, such that all accounts are considered equally valid. It's definitely a play that brings up a lot of questions of what is happening in our world right now. |
|
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: writerkev 05:56 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - Singapore/Fling 12:22 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
|
|
|
| Yes, and we just heard the DOJ has demanded the names of all citizens who accessed an anti-Trump website. Sounds scarily like the beginnings of Orwell's thought police. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
| re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 | |
| Posted by: BHandshy 05:26 am EDT 08/18/17 | |
| In reply to: re: "1984 on Broadway" - Gripping, must-see theater - and parallels to the events of 8/16/17 - writerkev 05:56 am EDT 08/17/17 | |
|
|
|
| OMG. | |
| reply to this message | reply to first message |
Time to render: 0.050754 seconds.