1984 - Audience Experiences

These past few weeks I've seen the attached article all over my Facebook wall and am curious as to how much of it is true, or how much of it is exaggerated.

I have tickets to see the show from the front Dress Circle next week and have been excited for this production since tickets first went on sale. I'm not one to be squeamish and know what's ahead, so I'm sure I'll be fine when the time comes. But... I'm curious how those who are unprepared, or those who are squeamish, really respond.

Were there any interesting responses from the audience when you attended 1984?

"Stage version of '1984' makes audiences faint, vomit, scream"

Updated On: 7/18/17 at 12:41 PM

It seems to me that this is great publicity for the show.

While it may not be selling out, there seems to be an audience for it as reflected in the grosses. As I said before, people are still discussing this topic on Facebook and spreading the word of the show. There certainly was a boost following opening night (when these articles began to surface).

I observed the surrounding audience when I saw the show, and honestly people didn't really seem too affected. I mean a few people here and there seemed slightly disturbed, but no one walked out and I believe I even saw a man sleeping during the torture scenes (even though in all honesty I don't know how that was possible). In my opinion the show was just so poorly written and misguided to even worry about seeing it. It was very boring and tired, and the fierce political energy and messages were lost completely.

At the performance I attended (I can look for the exact date later on my ticket) a woman did yell out from the back of the Dress Circle.

O'Brien (Reed Birney) asks Winston (Tom Sturridge) something along the lines of "What does the future look like?" And the woman shouted "The future is in Women!" Reed paused for a second and let her continue, which she did for about another comment or so, and then he asked "Where do you think you are?" and went on with the show. Very professional, but you can tell he was stunned.

The ushers kept getting asked if that was part of the play, but confirmed it was indeed not!

I did notice some people leave from the orchestra, but nothing more than that. Loved the show and enjoyed my first experience at the Hudson!

friend of mine saw it in previews. knew the orwell book but nothing much about the production. she and her companion walked out in the middle. and i think she told me they were in the middle of the orchestra, having to say "excuse me" to a bunch of people. nothing discreet about it.

i haven't seen it yet but will. i will also - unlike my friend - be 'prepared' so i am sure my experience will be different. my friend (and her companion that evening) see lots of theater...from what I recall, I think she said to me something to the effect of: it was too much, long stressful day at work and really didn't want to sit through such unpleasantness going on in front of her on the stage (the torture). she was surprised/unprepared for the staging/presentation. she could explain better than that but that was the gist. i think if she had waited for more word of mouth/reviews she might have attended it in a different mindset and sat through it-or else not gone at all.

I saw it this past Saturday. I liked it. I read the book in high school ages ago and didnt remember much, so I reread it the week before I saw the show .... I think that helped. If you are planning on seeing the show, try to read up on it a bit. The first chapter of the book and the glossary at the end are particularly helpful.



The torture scene was not nearly as horrific as I expected. Our audience was well-behaved. It got a standing ovation fairly quickly, at least from what I could see.

Can't say whether it's bullcrap or not, but I'm sure it's extremely exaggerated.



I've seen it twice and only witnessed one departure and that was of a young girl and her mum.