From Keythe: A Hong Kong Connection

Performing 1984 in Hong Kong was an amazing experience in so many ways, but I wanted to share one experience that touched me most deeply. The words of this masterpiece resonated so deeply with me on our Opening Night that it was difficult to concentrate on my performance. As I spoke of "creating a society where there is no loyalty except loyalty to the state; no love except the passionate love of Big Brother; and nothing that we (the powerful) are not in control of" I could feel in the perfect stillness of the audience members a connection to the material that I haven't felt in the past year that I've been performing this play.

Here in America, I fear we are skirting dangerously close to the type of society that Orwell outlines in his novel, but in Hong Kong, they find themselves under control from the government of mainland China for almost a decade, and while they have been promised that nothing will change in the way that they choose to govern themselves, the spectre of actual Totalitarian rule looms much larger than it does here in America. A gentleman I met in Hong Kong described it as if you lived in a neighborhood for many years, and suddenly someone comes in and buys up all of the land. She promises that she won't throw you or your family out of your house, but she rearanges all of the fences. You are free to live just like you lived before, but your yard is going to be a little diffferent.

The courage of the organizers of the Hong Kong Arts Festival in presenting this piece at this point in their history is a bold and brave move, and is an inspiration to me.