Meat & Potato's Dystopia Delivers
When a phrase becomes as ubiquitous as "Big Brother" (and we're not even counting the reality show here), you wonder if it still holds any meaning, even when it's coming from the original source. Meat and Potato Theatre company's sparse but solid production of 1984 shows us that the man who wrote the book on totalitarian society still can have an impact, even on a small D.C. blackbox stage.
Part of this, of course, comes from the inarguably powerful source material; the word "Orwellian" wasn't coined for nothing. Even without the heightened sense of urgency of seeing the show in the current political climate, the work conveys its message through poetic flair and emotional connections, not just broad themes and political platitudes. Audiences can connect with not just ideas, but characters, which makes the work's bleak conclusion that much more devastating.
Meat and Potato's script - adapted by company founder and frequent performer Tobin Atkinson - is nicely condensed and largely faithful to the novel. It has its contemporary touches, the main one being that Big Brother now stands in opposition to an Islamic regime. These are arguably unneccessary (I like my allegories with a bit more nuance), but it keeps the show from feeling too dated, and provides some interesting results; it's an experience to find oneself rooting on the side of the "terrorists."
Wednesday evening's show was still working out some kinks (opening night was described as a pay-what-you-can dress rehearsal after curtain), and these mostly involved lighting issues, a few dropped lines and some visible backstage confusion. But while the criminally under-recognized Meat and Potato Theatre company isn't the most polished of D.C. performing groups, it has a scrappy, underdog quality that makes you root for its productions, which always show promise and inspiration.
1984 is no exception. At the center of this piece is John Geoffrion as Winston Smith, the main rebel against Big Brother's rule in 1984's dystopian society, where freedom is equated with slavery and language is being slowly reduced in order to limit thought and dissention. Geoffrion, just fine as a bloodthirsty prosecutor in Landless Theatre Company's recent Cannibal! The Musical, shows he can do more than broad comedy, exhibiting admirable restraint as Smith. The character's romance with the sexually liberated Julia (Kristen Egermeier-Hampton, at turns intense and appealingly coquettish) is a moving one. Geoffrion also brings emotional weight to scenes with a nostalgic shopkeeper (Barbara Papendorp, delightful in this role but too histrionic elsewhere) and a fellow dissenter (the reliable Atkinson, whose melodic delivery can shift impressively from soothing to frightening depending on context).
The production isn't a lavish one - its most notable set piece consists of two glowering eyes painted on the stage's backdrop, which set an uneasy tone as the lights slowly go up and the play begins. The company's use of masks sporadically throughout the production is somewhat puzzling but adds kind of an offbeat flair. This spare set and staging gets the job done, much like Meat and Potato Theatre - a company which manages to achieve its expressed mission of delivering us meaningful theater at its most basic.
1984 runs through Nov. 5 at Playbill Cafe on 14th and P Streets. For more information, visit the company's web site.