1984

For those of you familiar with Irishman Peadar de Burca’s stand-up comedy or his columns in Gazeta Wyborca, there is one thing you must do: forget about them. In a previous life, prior to settling in Gliwice, Peadar ran a small theatre company in the west of Ireland. He performed Dracula in a seven hundred year old church. He toured Hamlet around the British Isles. He adapted Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho for the stage. He acted in Ireland’s only Irish language theatre, An Taibhdhearc for over ten years. On November 21st, he will return to his roots with a unique version of George Orwell’s 1984, a one-man stage adaptation in English. De Burca’s vision is neither shock nor satire, but a story stripped down to the humanity of Winston, a man who defies the totalitarian system by yearning for love, by seeking companionship and aching for sex. The themes of language, manipulation and the role of technology in enabling governments to monitor their citizens are present, but above all, 1984 at Teatr Korez is about resistance and rebellion, something the people of Poland and Ireland know a thing or two about.