Nineteen Eighty-Four - Shaken and Stirred

Looking forward very much to taking the students to see Shake and Stir's adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Shake and Stir have proved time and again that they are a young and innovative theatre company whose interpretations of classics are fresh without trying too hard to be hip. They presented an enjoyable potted version of their Bard to the Bone show at the ETAQ Conference on the weekend and were warmly received.

I cannot recommend highly enough the Teachers' Resource Kit Naomi Russell has compiled for Shake and Stir's production. You can find it here. I have already tried out the Physical Jerks activity at the beginning of period one on a Monday morning. A good way to wake the students up - particularly the ones who came in late! They were then grumpy and complained that they now understood what it was like to have no freedom - huzzah!

We also did the 1984  bingo as a lead in to a discussion on how language is linked to power and control. They came up with comments on how language is controlled (Newspeak, etc.), but also how language is used to control (propaganda).

Tomorrow, again inspired by Shake and Stir's teachers' notes, I am going to turn my classroom into Room 101 and we are going to explore our deepest fears about the future. I will then introduce them to the literary concepts of utopia and dystopia using Mike Ashley's exhibition guide for last year's British Library exhibition, Out of this World: Science Fiction, But Not as You Know It. I thought it would be interesting to also frame discussion in light of the original utopia-into-dystopia - Genesis chapters 1-3. The big question they will be seeking to answer in the lesson is: what utopian and/or dystopian elements may be seen in the sci-fi texts we are studying this term?

Will let you know how it goes!