Confronting surveillance, misinformation, and authoritarianism in the modern age, this fresh adaptation of Orwell's 1984 fuses puppetry and storytelling with original music and a shape-shifting set. Featuring specially recorded roles by Dame Joanna Lumley, Sophie Aldred, and Sir Simon Russell Beale as Big Brother, this reimagined cautionary tale is a timely exploration of power, control, and resistance, directed by Adam Lenson with an original score by Dan Melrose. Returning for a twelfth year, Fringe veterans Box Tale Soup have handmade almost the entirety of the puppets, set, and props using recycled materials, turning waste into art.
The year is 1984, perhaps—it is impossible to tell. Winston Smith, an insignificant cog in the Party's vast machine, dreams of freedom, but is he the only one? Big Brother is watching, and dreams can be deadly when rebellion begins with a thought.
Writer and performer Noel Byrne said, “This is a classic story, and one that still feels eerily prescient today of course - we hope our new adaptation reflects that. As previous audiences will know, we love to use puppetry in our work, and in the case of 1984, puppetry is a powerful way to show the loss of agency and control. While Orwell's novel can be seen as bleak and hopeless, we have tried to focus on the spark of resistance and human spirit, treating this as a cautionary tale that encourages us to find strength together and question our own role in shaping the future."
Box Tale Soup is an award-winning theatre company whose critically acclaimed productions have delighted thousands of people in the UK and abroad. The name comes from their signature style, packing whole handmade worlds into a vintage trunk with a delicious mix of puppetry, movement, theatre and music. Past Edinburgh shows include Casting the Runes (winner of Best Stage Play of 2024 from Edinburgh Horror Festival's The Spookies), Gulliver's Travels (winner of Best Production of 2022 from Chris On Theatre), Northanger Abbey (Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence 2013), Great Grimm Tales, The Turn of the Screw, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Manalive!, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Buxton Fringe Best Show For Families award 2014).
Adam Lenson is a London-based director, dramaturg and creative technologist whose work frequently appears at the Edinburgh Fringe. He specialises in developing new musicals, with world premieres including Cable Street, Public Domain, The Fabulist Fox Sister, and Stages. His solo show Anything That We Wanted To Be premiered at Camden People's Theatre before transferring to Summerhall for the Fringe in 2023. Adam curates SIGNAL, a long-running concert series championing new musical theatre, and has supported the development of over fifty musicals to date. He is Artistic Director of TIMELAPSE, a company making music-led theatre exploring technology, identity, and catastrophe, and is co-founder of Theatrical Solutions, developing digital tools for live performance.
Running Time: 70 mins | Suitable for ages 12+
This show contains sexual references and distressing or potentially triggering themes including references to incarceration and torture
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