Snowflakes should have read the book.
Following the election and inauguration of Donald Trump, sales of George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel “1984” skyrocketed to number one on the Amazon bestseller list. The book’s publisher, Penguin, even ordered 75,000 reprints of the book.
It was only a matter of time before the Trump bump for Orwell’s book would turn into a Broadway production. However, due to its graphic portrayal of grotesque torture scenes, it’s caused audience members to faint, vomit, and even get into fistfights.
In a similar fashion to the novel, the play, starring Tom Sturridge as Winston Smith and Olivia Wilde as Julia (his illegal love interest), follows the two evading the government, Big Brother, and the propaganda it uses to control the masses.
Deep into the story, Smith is apprehended and tortured mercilessly until his anti-Big Brother sentiments finally dither. It’s so graphic that the Hollywood Reporter calls it “political torture porn” and (ideally, my favorite way to describe anything) a “grim, sphincter-clenching sit.”