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Hello
out there
To my Niran, My
friends Chamila and Calani,
To the 2002 O/L batch of Devi Balika Vidyalaya,
Dear Ammi and Appachchi, To
my one and only Nadheeshani,
To all my friends, especially Dila, Thila, Sulo, Prami, Deshi, Lak,
Chith and Nipu,
To my Himasha, Parika, Ruk, Roshani and Uthpala, Dearest
Dila, My
dear Nisal,
Our darling daughter Salome, Everloving
Damith, Big
Brother is Watching! George Orwell
was a quiet, decent Englishman who passionately hated two things:
inequality and political lying. Out of his hatred of inequality
came a desire for a society in which class privileges would not
exist. This to him was "democratic socialism," His hatred
of political lying and his support for socialism led him to denounce
the political lie that what was going on in the Soviet Union had
anything to do with socialism. As long as people equated the Soviet
Union with socialism, he felt, no one could appreciate what democratic
socialism might be like. Perhaps no
other novel in this century has had a greater impact upon the way
we think and talk about our world than George Orwell's masterpiece,
1984. "Big Brother", "doublespeak", and "the
thought police" have become part of our everyday lexicon, and
the term "Orwellian" has become a familiar adjective for
any situation-real or imagined-where conformity is compulsory and
where someone always seems to be watching. Orwell's novel
also has the distinction of being, along with Aldous Huxley's Brave
New World, Yevgeny Zamyatin's We, Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork
Orange and his own Animal Farm, one of the most important works
of anti-utopic fiction produced in this century. These novels, which
began to flourish after World War I, imagine a nightmarish society
where all that is ugly and perverse about human nature has prevailed,
and people are powerless to resist an insidious, coercive order.
In 1984, the insidious order is known as "Big Brother",
a personification of the regime that both demands and ensures absolute
loyalty and obedience from all of its citizens. Big Brother
is Watching is a dramatic adaptation of Orwell's novel and is a
sharp, concise play that effectively conveys the message of Orwell's
novel using minimal stage setting and just 14 characters. It tells
of a world where a Government i.e. Big Brother, controls everything,
from the way people dress and speak to the way they live and think.
Winston Smith,
a worker in the Ministry of Truth is growing disillusioned with
the system and its insistence on absolute control. He is joined
in his office by Julia who is also a member of the party and who
is in love with him. They join a group of conspirators who are attempting
to overthrow the tyrannical regime of Big Brother. Their love has
to be kept a secret and they get married despite a ban on the institution
of marriage and live out in the 'prole' section of the city. The proles,
the proletarians are the workers of the system and are people not
considered 'human' by Big Brother. The play follows their lives
and exposes the torture, the cruelty meted out by Big Brother in
his attempt to stay in power. It also exposes the hypocrisy that
is so intertwined with the lives and behaviour of most politicians
in our world today. Big Brother is also a reminder of the power
that great nations wield over the small, the way powerful countries
impose their will and their might on the weaker nations. Big Brother
is Watching will be staged from June 6 - 8. Shows will commence
at 7.30 p.m. The production will be handled entirely by StageLight&Magic
Inc. The play will be directed by Feroze Kamardeen, who also directed
"The Legend of Macbeth", "Julius Caesar - The Anatomy
of an Assassination", "Widows", "Accidental
Death of an Anarchist", "The Compleat wrks of Wllm Shkspr"
and "Animal Farm". Big Brother
is Watching stars some of the brightest new talent in English theatre
including Marsh Dodanwela, Kisholi de Mel, and Chamath Arambewela.
Dialog GSM,
John Keells Institute, National Lotteries Board and The Golden Key
Company are sponsoring StageLight&Magic Inc.'s theatre activities
for the year 2003. YES FM is the Electronic Media Sponsor and Sonali
White of the Haddai Label is the official Costume Designer. The
Sunday Times is the Official Newspaper. |
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