{"id":35782,"date":"2026-08-19T22:09:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35782"},"modified":"2026-08-19T22:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:09:20","slug":"inspired-setting-for-abingdon-drama-clubs-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=35782","title":{"rendered":"Inspired Setting for Abingdon Drama Club&#8217;s 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026081901.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nFaces look out from the window of Abingdon Drama Club on Marcham Road.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026081902.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThey make you stop and wonder what plays they belong to. Soon, Big Brother could be joining them with his all-seeing eye.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026081905.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAbingdon Drama Club will perform George Orwell\u2019s 1984 at All Saints Church, Sutton Courtenay, from 28\u201331 October. The production will transform the church into the world of Big Brother.<\/p>\n<p>Written just after the end of WWII in 1948, Orwell\u2019s warning about the manipulation of truth still feels relevant: \u201cWar is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.\u201d<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/imag26\/2026081906.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nWith the Unicorn Theatre being revamped, Abingdon Drama Club has moved to an unusual but very fitting setting for 1984. Nearby in the churchyard lies Eric Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell.<\/p>\n<p>His gravestone is simple and partly hidden by rose bushes. On top are coins and small tokens left by visitors from different countries. Other mementoes have been placed in a box behind the gravestone to keep it looking tidy. <\/p>\n<p>Behind Blair\u2019s grave is the slate-grey gravestone of David Astor. Following Blair\u2019s wishes, Astor arranged for him to be buried in an English parish churchyard rather than anywhere grand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faces look out from the window of Abingdon Drama Club on Marcham Road. They make you stop and wonder what plays they belong to. Soon, Big Brother could be joining them with his all-seeing eye. Abingdon Drama Club will perform George Orwell\u2019s 1984 at All Saints Church, Sutton Courtenay, from 28\u201331 October. The production will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}