For those familiar with the original work, there's something daunting about the fact that when intermission rolls around during Catalyst Theater's production of Christopher Gallu's adaption of 1984, we know that all there's really left to see is the interrogation scenes -- and they aren't going to be brief.

The decision to divide the play at this point really drives home this version's emphasis on torture -- its brutality and more importantly, its futility, as those under duress jump to confess whatever is asked of them, just to get the pain to stop. Catalyst's designers and performers have really shown the wear and strain on these individuals - from ugly looking bruises on their appendages to their frightened, deadened expressions. The theme makes a work that's already resonant in the current political climate that much more contemporary.

This production, a reprise of an earlier mounting of the work that DCist didn't see, is a slick, thoughtful take on 1984, that adds a pronounced touch without taking too many liberties. Director Jim Petosa shows his hand most clearly during the choreographed dream sequences crafted for Winston (Scott Fortier), which have an uneasy, stream-of-consciousness feel interrupted by jarring sound effects. James Kronzer's stark white set immediately, and terrifyingly, calls to mind a sanitarium more than a prison. The ambitiousness of this production lends itself nicely to the Atlas, a new, larger space to the company formerly housed in the tiny Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

Fortier makes for a credibly flawed protagonist, but it is during those gruesome torture scenes that his skill really shines through (just see how his reaction changes as he's confronted with what must be one of the most nightmarish incarnations of sadism one could think of). But it's the performance of Ian LeValley as O'Brien, Big Brother's highest-ranked agent in the story, that really chills. LeValley's one of those smiling villains, yet forceful and intimidating while never seeming clownishly so.

1984 runs through Oct. 5 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. Tickets - always $10 - are available online.