1984 embraces video design as a vital storytelling language, adding depth to both character and narrative while remaining cohesive with the production’s style.
Shake & Stir Theatre Co’s production was first staged in 2012, toured nationally across Australia in 2014, and returns to the stage in 2025. The original production marked our commercial theatre debut, and it has been a thrill to revisit this bold theatrical feat, with the video design evolving to reflect both advancements in technology and shifts in the political landscape.
Production Photograph — Joel Devereux
The design features a towering wall of twelve individual TV panels, forming a dynamic centrepiece on stage that is integrated into the physical set design. Revisiting the show thirteen years later has provided the opportunity to refresh its visual aesthetic, honing the storytelling with today’s technology. Using modern cameras (Sony FX3 and FX6 digital cinema cameras) and updated colour workflows, every intimate detail of Winston’s internal world—captured through pre-recorded close-ups—now appears with greater clarity and nuance. This enhancement deepens the audience’s connection to the performance, visually expressing subtle emotional shifts and internal thoughts more vividly than ever. Winston Smith’s diary entries remain a core element of the video design, conveyed through these pre-recorded close-ups. This visual language offers intimate access to Winston’s private thoughts and emotions, acting as a portal into his subconscious.
Pre-record surveillance footage used alongside live feed to heighten Big Brother’s ever-watching gaze
The video design continues to convey the omnipresent surveillance state central to 1984. Live camera feeds and pre-recorded surveillance footage — including real-time capture from a PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) camera — are woven throughout the story, drawing the audience into the unnerving reality of constant surveillance. The physical arrangement of screens surrounding the characters reinforces a palpable sense of Big Brother’s inescapable gaze. Archival footage from wartime and the industrial age is used as propaganda newsreel material, giving the work a timeless quality rather than projecting it into a futuristic setting. Modern AI-based upscaling has been applied to this archival footage, enhancing its clarity and resolution at large scale while introducing a visual texture that could be interpreted as “deepfake” or artificially manufactured. This aesthetic invites the audience to draw their own parallels between Orwell’s 1984 and the world we live in today.
Live surveillance camera integration
Production Photograph — Joel Devereux
For the 2025 tour, the video playback system was changed from QLab v2 (used in 2012) to Dataton Watchout 6. This shift provided greater visual control over colour, brightness and contrast, allowing the video design to be shaped with precision alongside the lighting design to create a more unified stage picture. The change also significantly improved low-latency performance for live camera feeds, enabling tighter synchronisation between onstage action and the TV wall. Watchout’s flexibility made it possible to treat each TV as an independent display or map content seamlessly across all twelve screens as a single image.
A revised signal workflow used 3 x 4K video outputs feeding into 3 Datapath FX4 processors, delivering a high-resolution signal to each panel. Each TV was network-controlled via TCP commands, allowing the backlights to be switched off in moments of complete darkness for a more dramatic visual reset. The PTZ camera was also integrated into the network, with preset positions and dramatic, surveillance-style zooms triggered at key moments to capture live angles with precision and consistency.
The warmth of the “Golden Country” contrasts the cold, monotone world of surveillance and subconscious
In contrast to the stark reality depicted through surveillance imagery, the “Golden Country” sequences appear on the TV wall in a softer, dreamlike cinematic style. These visuals offer a brief but powerful escape for both Winston and the audience, conveying hope and longing through fluid, ethereal imagery. The colour palette shifts from the cold, monotonous tones of the physical design, costumes, and pre-recorded material to more saturated, warmer hues.
Production Photograph — Joel Devereux
The video design integrates with the production’s set, lighting, and sound designs to create a stylistically cohesive environment. The tangible presence of the video wall on stage ensures the video remains a fundamental part of the storytelling, reinforcing emotional beats without overshadowing the live performances.
Revisiting 1984 in 2025 with a refreshed video design has allowed us to deepen the narrative’s emotional impact, connecting audiences with Winston’s world in vivid and meaningful ways.
See more about the production here.