Jack Babb

The most dangerous tyranny is the one in which you believe.

George Orwell's enduring parable about the perils of totalitarianism is (sadly) as pertinent today as it was when Stalin ruled over the former Soviet Union.  The lesson of Orwell’s novel – that those who hunger for power feed off the stupidity of those who give it to them – resonates in the world we live in.  Part satire, part gripping tragedy, Animal Farm be a fable that happened in a mythical barnyard far away- but it could still happen in our own back yard.

Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.

Winston Smith rewrites history for the Ministry of Truth, but when he's handed a note that says simply 'I love you' by a woman he hardly knows, he decides to risk everything in a search for the real truth.  1984 is a world where opinions cannot be expressed freely, where a war without end is always fought and Big Brother is always watching: a world where Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery, and War is Peace. George Orwell wrote this cautionary tale more than half a century ago with one moral in mind, "Don't let it happen.  It depends on you."



I have written stage adaptations of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" that may be available for professional theatre companies.  These scripts must also be approved by the Estate of George Orwell and so I have not made them available on this website.  If you are a professional company and are interested in reading the scripts, send an email to:  scripts@jackbabb.com

1984

I was excited to see 1984 the Play, trying to imagine how this complex tale could be condensed for the stage. The book had astonished me when I first read it – such a disturbing portrayal of totalitarianism crushing the individual on every level written as a warning of what must never be allowed to happen – and its themes seem to add ever more layers the more I have tried to penetrate them.  How could this be cut down to an hour and a half? And without any carefully- crafted images of gray buildings and smog-thick skies? Without the endless rows of blank faces and vast empty corridors? I was intrigued to see what director Jack Babb’s vision would entail.  The curtain rose on the middle of Winston’s interrogation scene. Using two actors to portray this central character, switching between the present and the world of his memory, half of the stage constantly is swathed in shadow…  I sighed – a perfect way to adapt a story of such intricacy. The events were unraveling before our eyes, all leading back to the present moment of the play, multiplying the significance of every word and conversation...This is a powerful interpretation of a classic that engages the imagination without special effects or high-production values. No bells, no whistles: just pure drama.-The Vienna Review

Animal Farm

Sixty Years’s Later, Orwell’s Animal Farm at the International Theatre is Still Disturbingly Relevant. The Vienna Review