As part of the Orwell Prize for politically writing, Halton Libraries will be live streaming a reading of George Orwell’s 1984 – Just two days before the General Election
It takes place in Widnes and Halton Lea Library, on Tuesday 6 June from 9am to 7pm.
Orwell’s vision of a dystopian future in which mass surveillance, complete social segregation and isolationist policies define the life of its citizens, will be read out loud in whole for the first time ever in the UK.
Nineteen Eighty-Four will be read in full at the building on which Orwell based the Ministry of Truth – Senate House in London.
The full reading, featuring over 50 leading cultural figures will also have immersive staged elements, submerging audiences in the world of Big Brother, IngSoc and The Party.
Using projection, and actors from UCL, the audience will be able to absorb the intrigue and horror of 1984. Presented by the Orwell Foundation and UCL Festival of Culture, directed by Hannah Price and produced by Libby Brodie Productions.
Libraries and Theatres across the country will show the screening and organise satellite events and activities
Readers announced:
Billy Bragg is a recording artist, performer and activist. His albums include Life’s a Riot with Spy Vs Spy, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, Don’t Try This at Home, England, Half English, and Tooth and Nail. He is the author of Roots, Radicals and Rockers, published by Faber and Faber on 1st June 2017.
Other readers include Mark Ravenhill, a playwright, actor and journalist, who has written over 20 plays including Some Explicit Polaroids (1999) and Mother Clap’s Molly House (2001).
In 2012, he became Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is Associate Director of London’s Little Opera House at The King’s Head Theatre.
Further readers include: Richard Blair (Orwell’s son), Alan Johnson MP, award-winning writer Aminatta Forna, journalist Peter Hitchens, Baroness Patience Wheatcroft, broadcaster and historian David Olusoga and activist Jack Monroe.