The Broadway production of “1984" is a chilling adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel whose graphic torture scenes are eliciting intense reactions from audience members; After “Lady Macbeth” opens this weekend, young actress Florence Pugh will likely surface on Hollywood's radar.
Olivia Wilde and Tom Sturridge on their stage roles in visceral '1984' and the novel's prophecy
It's always a change for the cast when a play goes from being in rehearsals to being up on its feet in front of an audience, but for Tom Sturridge, who plays Winston Smith in the new Broadway production of "1984," the audience reaction was unexpected and vocal:
"It was an extraordinary shock when we did that first show and people started shouting at us: Stop! Please stop this! Stop! Stop! Stop hurting that boy!"
Sturridge plays a character who endures a graphic torture scene in the show. This Broadway adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian novel is proving to be tough to watch for some people. Do a Google search on the production and you'll find a list of articles about people fainting, vomiting and leaving during performances.
Olivia Wilde plays Julia, the love interest of Sturridge's character. Wilde is making her Broadway debut in "1984" and she and her co-star were recently interviewed on The Frame by John Horn. When asked about the extreme audience reactions, they were supportive:
"We are totally supportive of [people walking out]," Sturridge said. "It's a totally reasonable response to witnessing what they have to witness. " Wilde added that for those who stay, there's a kind of bonding experience: "It's become kind of a part of the performance, that the remaining audience members ... their experience is intensified by people leaving because they can't handle it."
To hear the full interview click the blue play button at the top of the page. Below are some highlights of their conversation.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
HOW THE MULTI-MEDIA STAGING TURNS THE AUDIENCE INTO BIG BROTHER:
Wilde: We are running back-and-forth between the stage and a set behind the stage where our images are simulcast onto a huge screen above the stage. It is live and it turns the audience into the "Big Brother" because we think we are alone. We keep saying, "We're safe here, we're alone." And you, suddenly — as the audience member — realize you are spying on us. That was something that changed once we were in front of a real audience because we had been rehearsing that ... and never quite feeling totally on our own until we brought it into the theater where we run behind the stage and we're literally by ourselves because it's just cameras stuck into the walls of a little truck.
HOW JAMES COMEY, "FAKE NEWS" AND DEBATES AROUND WHAT IS TRUE ARE ECHOED IN THE PLAY:
Wilde: When O'Brien says, "The individual is dead, people will not look up from their screens long enough to see what's happening," people think that we've altered the text to make it more relevant. But Orwell was writing about the "telescreen," a sci-fi element that he thought was far from being reality.
Sturridge: I remember when [James] Comey was giving his deposition in front of the Senate committee, one of the Republican senators said to him, "Words matter!" — which is a line I say quite forcefully in the play. That particular night, because everyone had been watching CNN and MSNBC and Fox News that morning ... the audience just went, Ahhh! It's astonishing how the tide of the news carries onto our evening.
HOW THE TEXT OF THE PLAY RESONATES DIFFERENTLY IN 2017:
Sturridge: The text of this play originated five years ago in Nottingham, England, before any of us had any idea that Donald Trump was going to run for president. And almost 90% of it is taken directly from the 1949 novel by George Orwell. So unlike a lot of other shows that are exploring the current political climate, this has not been adjusted or adapted or manipulated for what's going on. It really is prophecy — and that is terrifying.
Wilde: What feels so different about the play now is truth, which is now in question. The idea of news versus fake news and the construction of a consensus and how you have an argument when you can't agree on what the truth is ... That's something now that is very much a part of our daily conversation.
ON THE MOMENT WHEN THE HOUSE LIGHTS COME UP DURING A TORTURE SCENE, MAKING THE AUDIENCE A PARTICIPANT IN WHAT'S HAPPENING ON STAGE:
Sturridge: It's the most exciting thing about theater to me is the fact that the people who create it are in the room with the people who are experiencing it – unlike cinema, unlike the novel. And to actually acknowledge that is incredible. And I do spend those first 20 seconds in silence, just trying to take everyone's face in and include them in the play, and [being] astonished by the fact that they are allowing what seems to be happening to me to happen.
Wilde: The moment the house lights come up, I'm on stage in a position where I can watch the audience, and they can't see that I'm watching them. It's fascinating to see them suddenly startled by the realization that they are involved, that "he" can see them. Many of them seem to panic. I've seen people burst out crying, I've seen people start to laugh nervously, but it's something that doesn't happen very often in theater. Like many things about our show, there's a lot of new experiences for the audience. But I love that I get to spy on them.
ON THE PHYSICALITY, THE PASSION AND THE VIOLENCE IN THE SHOW:
Wilde: We're both flinging ourselves into it with reckless abandon, I think, literally. Doing that together makes it something that's really exciting, and it's the only way that we can continue to be surprised by what happens onstage ... You're really keeping each other alive out there. When you have an actor onstage with you [who's] kind of bringing you into being by just looking at you, and then maintaining that connection by keeping the focus on you ... I could break it down for hours just how incredible it is. There's a scene in the play where I'm watching a memory of Winston's, and the characters in the memory aren't looking at me because they can't see me. I am invisible. And then once they disappear, I become visible once again because he glances at me, then a thousand people glance at me, and then they bring me back into reality.
Sturridge: This is a world in which love is illegal, and sex is illegal, in which intimacy and tenderness doesn't exist. So we wanted to work out a way that, if two people did find that connection, it wouldn't necessarily be obvious in how they express it. They find it through brutality.
Wilde: Something that I think is interesting is that, early on in the show, we do show them real kissing, real hitting. They then assume that what they are seeing on stage is really happening, so by the end of the show, when things turn more brutal, the audience is subconsciously accepting that reality. That's why it becomes disturbing.
Florence Pugh is the modern, dangerous 'Lady Macbeth'
“Lady Macbeth” is a film that sounds like a contradiction. It's a 19th Century period piece, but it’s also incredibly modern.
The film is loosely based, not on Shakespeare, but on the 1865 Russian novella, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.” The film was written by Alice Birch and directed by William Oldroyd. Katherine, the central character in the film, is played by Florence Pugh.
Trapped in a stifling, loveless marriage as a 17-year-old, Katherine begins a steamy affair with a farmhand named Sebastian. As Katherine begins to assert her independence, she goes to drastic lengths to maintain her freedom.
Pugh was only 19-years-old when she filmed "Lady Macbeth" a couple of years ago, and had just one other film under her belt. She spoke with The Frame host John Horn about what it was like to play a role that's unfortunately too rare in Hollywood: a complicated, interesting female character.
Interview highlights:
On her character Katherine as a 21st Century woman trapped in the 1860s:
She is completely a modern woman. And that's partly why it's been so exciting to hear the feedback of everyone, because they love the fact that she's modern. They love the fact that you could essentially put her in any period and she would be just as badass as she was in 1865. Except, you know, we are used to seeing period films from that era where the women either just grow old and are completely miserable, or they commit suicide. And instead we watch this woman take hold of her own life and basically fight for her freedom again, which is something that we don't see very often.
On being relatively new to film and working with a first-time director on "Lady Macbeth":
I'm so glad that I had done one [film role] before Katherine because ... I believe that I learn something new on set every time I'm working. But sets are very weird, they're strange to step on and off, and I'm glad that I had some experience of it. I think for Will [Oldroyd], I think it probably benefitted him hugely because there wasn't this kind of stigma of having to know everything all the time. And you don't. As long as you know what you need to be doing, then you're fine.
On the film's portrayal of a female character who enjoys sex:
That's been such a great thing to chat to people about, because people are so timid to talk about sex and nudity. That's the best thing about Katherine— she not only goes out and gets what she wants but she goes out and gets who she wants. And actually it’s the first time we are seeing a period film where the woman is manipulating the man and she doesn’t give a toss about it. We usually see the men doing that ... and that's why it's so shocking. And why should it be so shocking? Because she's a woman? Okay, cool. Well, there we go. We've got a great character to show you what's what.
To hear the full interview, click the blue player above.